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| Chapter VI. Of the destruction of two brethren for lack of discretion.
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Chapter VI.
Of the destruction of two brethren for lack of
discretion.
What shall I say of those
two brethren who lived beyond that desert of the Thebaid where once the
blessed Antony dwelt, and, not being sufficiently influenced by careful
discrimination, when they were going through the vast and extended
waste determined not to take any food with them, except such as the
Lord Himself might provide for them. And when as they wandered through
the deserts and were already fainting from hunger they were spied at a
distance by the Mazices1179
| 1179 Mazices: a
people of Mauritania Cæsariensis, who joined in the revolt of
Firmus, but submitted to Theodosius in 373. See Ammianus Marcellinus
XXIX. v. § 17. | (a race which is
even more savage and ferocious than almost all wild tribes, for they
are not driven to shed blood, as other tribes are, from desire of spoil
but from simple ferocity of mind), and when these acting contrary to
their natural ferocity, met them with bread, one of the two as
discretion came to his aid, received it with delight and thankfulness
as if it were offered to him by the Lord, thinking that the food
had been divinely provided for him,
and that it was God’s doing that those who always delighted in
bloodshed had offered the staff of life to men who were already
fainting and dying; but the other refused the food because it was
offered to him by men and died of starvation. And though this sprang in
the first instance from a persuasion that was blame-worthy yet one of
them by the help of discretion got the better of the idea which he had
rashly and carelessly conceived, but the other persisting in his
obstinate folly, and being utterly lacking in discretion, brought upon
himself that death which the Lord would have averted, as he would not
believe that it was owing to a Divine impulse that the fierce
barbarians forgot their natural ferocity and offered them bread instead
of a sword.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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