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| The Deeds of Some Holy Persons who devoted themselves to a Solitary Life.
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Chapter XXIII.—The
Deeds of Some Holy Persons who devoted themselves to a Solitary
Life.617
| 617On the growth of the monastic system, see Bingham,
Eccl. Antiq. VII.; on its philosophy, briefly, Bennett,
Christian Archæol. p. 468. Socrates uses Palladius’
Historia Lausiaca copiously in this chapter.
|
Since I have referred to the
monasteries of Egypt, it may be proper here to give a brief account of
them. They were founded probably at a very early period, but were
greatly enlarged and augmented by a devout man whose name was Ammoun.
In his youth this person had an aversion to matrimony; but when some of
his relatives urged him not to contemn marriage, but to take a wife to
himself, he was prevailed upon and was married. On leading the bride
with the customary ceremonies from the banquet-room to the nuptial
couch, after their mutual friends had withdrawn, he took a book618
| 618βιβλίον
ἀποστολικόν
. The books of the New Testament came to be divided into the two
classes of ‘gospels’ and ‘apostolic epistles,’
the first being called εὐαγγέλιον
or εὐαγγέλια
and the second, ἀπόστολος, ἀπόστολοί or βιβλίον
ἀποστολικόν
. Cf. Epiph. Hær. XLII. 10. Euthal. Diacon. (Ed.
Migné, Vol. LXXXV. col. 720, c.
|
containing the epistles of the apostles and read to his wife
Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians, explaining to her the
apostle’s admonitions to married persons.619
Adducing many external considerations besides, he descanted on the
inconveniences and discomforts attending matrimonial intercourse, the
pangs of child-bearing, and the trouble and anxiety connected with
rearing a family. He contrasted with all this the advantages of
chastity; described the liberty, and immaculate purity of a life of
continence; and affirmed that virginity places persons in the nearest
relation to the Deity. By these and other arguments of a similar kind,
he persuaded his virgin bride to renounce with him a secular life,
prior to their having any conjugal knowledge of each other. Having
taken this resolution, they retired together to the mountain of Nitria,
and in a hut there inhabited for a short time one common ascetic
apartment, without regarding their difference of sex, being according
to the apostles, ‘one in Christ.’620
| 620Gal. iii.
28. What Socrates here says
of Ammoun is attributed by Theodoret (H. E. IV. 12) to Pelagius,
who afterwards became bishop of Laodicea.
|
But not long after, the recent and unpolluted bride thus addressed
Ammoun: ‘It is unsuitable,’ said she, ‘for you who
practice chastity, to look upon a woman in so confined a dwelling; let
us therefore, if it is agreeable to you, perform our exercise
apart.’ This agreement again was satisfactory to both, and so
they separated, and spent the rest of their lives in abstinence from
wine and oil, eating dry bread alone, sometimes passing over one day,
at others fasting two, and sometimes more. Athanasius, bishop of
Alexandria, asserts in his Life of Anthony,621
| 621Athanas. Vit. Anton. 60.
|
that the subject of his memoir who was contemporary with this Ammoun,
saw his soul taken up by angels after his decease. Accordingly, a great
number of persons emulated Ammoun’s manner of life, so that by
degrees the mountains of Nitria and Scitis were filled with monks, an
account of whose lives would require an express work. As, however,
there were among them persons of eminent piety, distinguished for their
strict discipline and apostolic lives, who said and did many things
worthy of being recorded, I deem it useful to interweave with my
history a few particulars selected out of the great number for the
information of my readers. It is said that Ammoun never saw himself
naked, being accustomed to say that ‘it became not a monk to see
even his own person exposed.’ And when once he wanted to pass a
river, but was unwilling to undress, he besought God to enable him to
cross without his being obliged to break his resolution; and
immediately an angel transported him to the other side of the river.
Another monk named Didymus622
lived entirely alone to the day of his death, although he had reached
the age of ninety years. Arsenius, another of them, would not separate
young delinquents from communion, but only those that were advanced in
age: ‘for,’ said he, ‘when a young person is
excommunicated he becomes hardened; but an elderly one is soon sensible
of the misery of excommunication.’ Pior was accustomed to take
his food as he walked along. As a certain one asked him, ‘Why do
you eat thus?’ ‘That I may not seem,’ said he, ‘to make eating
serious business but rather a thing done by the way.’ To another
putting the same question he replied, ‘Lest even in eating my
mind should be sensible of corporeal enjoyment.’ Isidore affirmed
that he had not been conscious of sin even in thought for forty years;
and that he had never consented either to lust or anger. Pambos being
an illiterate man went to some one for the purpose of being taught a
psalm; and having heard the first verse of the thirty-eighth psalm,
‘I said I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my
tongue,’623
he departed without staying to hear the second verse, saying,
‘this one will suffice, if I can practically acquire it.’
And when the person who had given him the verse reproved him because he
had not seen him for the space of six months, he answered that he had
not yet learnt to practice the verse of the psalm. After a considerable
lapse of time, being asked by one of his friends whether he had made
himself master of the verse, his answer was, ‘I have scarcely
succeeded in accomplishing it during nineteen years.’ A certain
individual having placed gold in his hands for distribution to the
poor, requested him to reckon what he had given him. ‘There is no
need of counting,’ said he, ‘but of integrity of
mind.’ This same Pambos, at the desire of Athanasius the bishop,
came out of the desert to Alexandria and on beholding an actress there,
he wept. When those present asked him why he wept, he replied,
‘Two causes have affected me: one is the destruction of this
woman; the other is that I exert myself less to please my God than she
does to please obscene characters.’ Another said that ‘a
monk who did not work ought to be regarded as on a level with the
covetous man.’ Piterus was well-informed in many branches of
natural philosophy, and was accustomed frequently to enter into
expositions of the principles sometimes of one and sometimes of another
department of science, but he always commenced his expositions with
prayer. There were also among the monks of that period, two of the same
name, of great sanctity, each being called Macarius; one of whom was
from Upper Egypt, the other from the city of Alexandria. Both were
celebrated for their ascetic discipline, the purity of their life and
conversation, and the miracles which were wrought by their hands. The
Egyptian Macarius performed so many cures, and cast out so many devils,
that it would require a distinct treatise to record all that the grace
of God enabled him to do. His manner toward those who resorted to him
was austere, yet at the same time calculated to inspire veneration. The
Alexandrian Macarius, while in all respects resembling his Egyptian
namesake, differed from him in this, that he was always cheerful to his
visitors; and by the affability of his manners led many young men to
asceticism. Evagrius624
| 624Cf. Palladius, Hist. Lausiaca, chap. 86. But
Palladius says that Evagrius was ordained by Gregory of Nyssa, not of
Nazianzus. Cf. Sozomen, VI. 30.
|
became a disciple of these men, acquired from them the philosophy of
deeds, whereas he had previously known that which consisted in words
only. He was ordained deacon at Constantinople by Gregory of Nazianzus,
and afterwards went with him into Egypt, where he became acquainted
with these eminent persons, and emulated their course of conduct, and
miracles were done by his hands as numerous and important as those of
his preceptors. Books were also composed by him of very valuable
nature, one of which is entitled The Monk, or, On Active
Virtue; another The Gnostic,625
| 625Palladius calls this work ῾Ιερά
‘Sacred [matter].’ Hist. Lausiaca, 86.
|
or, To him who is deemed worthy of Knowledge: this book is
divided into fifty chapters. A third is designated
Antirrheticus, and contains selections from the Holy Scriptures
against tempting spirits, distributed into eight parts, according to
the number of the arguments. He wrote moreover Six Hundred
Prognostic Problems, and also two compositions in verse, one
addressed To the Monks living in Communities, and the other
To the Virgin. Whoever shall read these productions will be
convinced of their excellence. It will not be out of place here, I
conceive, to subjoin to what has been before stated, a few things
mentioned by him respecting the monks. These are his words:626
| 626Cf. Coteler. Eccl. Gr. Mon. 3. 59, containing
also other fragments of Evagrius.
|
It becomes us to enquire into the habits of the pious
monks who have preceded us, in order that we may correct ourselves by
their example: for undoubtedly very many excellent things have been
said and done by them. One of them was accustomed to say, that ‘a
drier and not irregular diet combined with love, would quickly conduct
a monk into the haven of tranquillity.’ The same individual freed
one of his brethren from being troubled by apparitions at night, by
enjoining him to minister while fasting to the sick. And being asked
why he prescribed this: ‘Such affections,’ said he,
‘are by nothing so effectually dissipated as by the exercise of
compassion.’ A certain philosopher of those times coming to
Anthony the Just, said to him, ‘How can you endure, father, being
deprived of the comfort of books?’ ‘My book, O
philosopher,’ replied Anthony, ‘is the nature of things
that are made, and it is present whenever I wish to read the words of
God.’ That ‘chosen vessel,’627
the aged Egyptian Macarius, asked me, why the strength of the faculty of memory is impaired
by cherishing the remembrance of injury received from men; while by
remembering those done us by devils it remains uninjured? And when I
hesitated, scarcely knowing what answer to make, and begged him to
account for it: ‘Because,’ said he, ‘the former is an
affection contrary to nature, and the latter is conformable to the
nature of the mind.’ Going on one occasion to the holy father
Macarius about mid-day, and being overcome with the heat and thirst, I
begged for some water to drink: ‘Content yourself with the
shade,’ was his reply, ‘for many who are now journeying by
land, or sailing on the deep, are deprived even of this.’
Discussing with him afterwards the subject of abstinence, ‘Take
courage, my son,’ said he: ‘for twenty years I have neither
eaten, drunk, nor slept to satiety; my bread has always been weighed,
my water measured, and what little sleep I have had has been stolen by
reclining myself against a wall.’628
The death of his father was announced to one of the monks: ‘Cease
your blasphemy,’ said he to the person that told him; ‘my
father is immortal.’ One of the brethren who possessed nothing
but a copy of the Gospels, sold it, and distributed the price in food
to the hungry, uttering this memorable saying—‘I have sold
the book which says, “Sell that thou hast and give to the
poor.”’629
There is an island about the northern part of the city of Alexandria,
beyond the lake called Maria, where a monk from Parembole630
| 630Parembole is a village near Alexandria, mentioned by
Athanasius in his second Apol. against the Arians, who names Macarius
as its presbyter.
|
dwells, in high repute among the Gnostics. This person was accustomed
to say, that all the deeds of the monks were done for one of these five
reasons;—on account of God, nature, custom, necessity, or manual
labor. The same also said that there was only one virtue in nature, but
that it assumes various characteristics according to the dispositions
of the soul: just as the light of the sun is itself without form, but
accommodates itself to the figure of that which receives it. Another of
the monks said, ‘I withdraw myself from pleasures, in order to
cut off the occasions of anger: for I know that it always contends for
pleasures, disturbing my tranquillity of mind, and unfitting me for the
attainment of knowledge.’ One of the aged monks said that
‘Love knows not how to keep a deposit either of provisions or
money.’ He added, ‘I never remember to have been twice
deceived by the devil in the same thing.’ Thus wrote Evagrius in
his book entitled Practice.631
And in that which he called The Gnostic he says, ‘We have
learned from Gregory the Just, that there are four virtues, having
distinct characteristics:—prudence and fortitude, temperance and
justice. That it is the province of prudence to contemplate the sacred
and intelligent powers apart from expression, because these are
unfolded by wisdom: of fortitude to adhere to truth against all
opposition, and never to turn aside to that which is unreal: of
temperance to receive seed from the chief husbandman,632
but to repel him who would sow over it seed of another kind: and
finally, of justice to adapt discourse to every one, according to their
condition and capacity; stating some things obscurely, others in a
figurative manner, and explaining others clearly for the instruction of
the less intelligent.’ That pillar of truth, Basil of Cappadocia,
used to say that ‘the knowledge which men teach is perfected by
constant study and exercise; but that which proceeds from the grace of
God, by the practice of justice, patience, and mercy.’ That the
former indeed is often developed in persons who are still subject to
the passions; whereas the latter is the portion of those only who are
superior to their influence, and who during the season of devotion,
contemplate that peculiar light of the mind which illumines them. That
luminary of the Egyptians, holy Athanasius, assures us ‘that
Moses was commanded to place the table on the north633
side. Let the Gnostics therefore understand what wind is contrary to
them, and so nobly endure every temptation, and minister nourishment
with a willing mind to those who apply to them.’ Serapion, the
angel of the church of the Thmuïtae, declared that ‘the mind
is completely purified by drinking in spiritual knowledge’: that
‘charity cures the inflammatory tendencies of the soul’;
and that ‘the depraved lusts which spring up in it are restrained
by abstinence.’ ‘Exercise thyself continually,’ said
the great and enlightened teacher Didymus, ‘in reflecting on
providence and judgment; and endeavor to bear in memory the material of
whatever discourses thou mayst have heard on these topics, for almost
all fail in this respect. Thou wilt find reasonings concerning judgment
in the difference of created forms, and the constitution of the
universe: sermons on providence comprehended in those means by which we
are led from vice and ignorance to virtue and knowledge.’
These few extracts from Evagrius we thought it would be
appropriate to insert here. There was another excellent man among the
monks, named Ammonius, who had so little interest in secular matters,
that when he went to Rome with Athanasius, he chose to investigate none
of the magnificent works of that
city, contenting himself with examining the Cathedral of Peter and Paul
only. This same Ammonius on being urged to enter upon the episcopal
office, cut off his own right ear, that by mutilation of his person he
might disqualify himself for ordination. But when long afterwards
Evagrius, whom Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, wished to make a
bishop, having effected his escape without maiming himself in any way,
afterwards happened to meet Ammonius, and told him jocosely, that he
had done wrong in cutting off his own ear, as he had by that means
rendered himself criminal in the sight of God. To which Ammonius
replied, ‘And do you think, Evagrius, that you will not be
punished, who from self-love have cut out your own tongue, to avoid the
exercise of that gift of utterance which has been committed to
you?’ There were at the same time in the monasteries very many
other admirable and devout characters whom it would be too tedious to
enumerate in this place, and besides if we should attempt to describe
the life of each, and the miracles they did by means of that sanctity
with which they were endowed, we should necessarily digress too far
from the object we have in view. Should any one desire to become
acquainted with their history, in reference both to their deeds and
experiences and discourses for the edification of their auditors, as
well as how wild beasts became subject to their authority, there is a
specific treatise634
| 634Hist. Lausiaca(Vol. XXXIV. in
Migné’s Patrologia Græca).
|
as on the subject, composed by the monk Palladius, who was a disciple
of Evagrius, and gives all these particulars in minute detail. In that
work he also mentions several women, who practiced the same kind of
austerities as the men that have been referred to. Both Evagrius and
Palladius flourished a short time after the death of Valens. We must
now return to the point whence we diverged.
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