Shorter Rules (Asceticon, Regulae brevius tractatae)

God, who loves humankind and teaches man knowledge, commands those entrusted with the gift of teaching, through the Apostle, to continue in their teaching; and those who need the building up that comes from the divine teachings he exhorts through Moses, saying: “Ask your father, and he will declare it to you; your elders, and they will tell you.” It is therefore necessary that we, who have been entrusted with the ministry of the word, be at all times ready for the perfecting of souls: to testify some things publicly to the whole church, and to give ourselves privately to each of those who come to us, to ask freely about whatever concerns the soundness of faith and the truth of the way of life according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the two things by which the man of God is securely made perfect. And you, for your part, must let nothing pass without fruit, nothing be idle for you; but besides what you learn in common, you should also ask privately about what is profitable, and devote all the leisure of your life to what is useful. If, then, God has gathered us for this, and there is much quiet from the noise outside, let us neither turn to any other work nor give our bodies over to sleep again, but let us spend the remaining part of the night in care and examination of what is necessary, fulfilling what was said by the blessed David: “In the law of the Lord he will meditate day and night.”

Question. Whether it is permitted or profitable for anyone to give himself leave to do or say what he thinks good without the testimony of the God-inspired Scriptures.

Answer. Since our Lord Jesus Christ says of the Holy Spirit, “For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears, that he will speak,” and of himself, “The Son can do nothing of himself,” and again, “I have not spoken from myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me”: who could fall into such madness as to dare of himself to take up anything, even so far as a thought? For he needs the holy and good Spirit as a guide, so as to be directed into the way of truth in mind, word, and deed; and he is blind and lives in darkness without the sun of righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who enlightens with his commandments as with rays. “For the commandment of the Lord,” it says, “is far-shining, enlightening the eyes.”

Now of the things and words that occupy us, some are distinctly laid down by God's commandment in holy Scripture, and others are passed over in silence. Concerning what is written, no authority at all is given to anyone either to do anything forbidden or to leave out anything commanded, since the Lord has charged once for all and said: “And you shall keep the word that I command you today; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.” For there is “a fearful expectation of judgment and a zeal of fire” that will devour those who dare anything of the kind. But concerning what is passed over in silence, the apostle Paul has set out a rule for us, saying: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own, but each that of the other.” So in every respect it is necessary to be subject either to God according to his commandment, or to others because of his commandment. For it is written: “Being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” And the Lord says: “Whoever wishes to be great among you, let him be last of all and servant of all”, being, that is, estranged from his own wishes, in imitation of the Lord himself, who says: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.”

Question. What profession ought those who wish to live together according to God to require of one another?

Answer. The one set before everyone who comes by the Lord, who said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” What force each of these has has been stated in the question about it.

Question. How shall we turn back one who sins, or how should we treat one who does not turn back?

Answer. As we have been commanded by the Lord, who said: “If your brother sins, go, rebuke him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen, take with you one or two more, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.” If this happens, then, “this rebuke by the majority is enough for such a one”, as the Apostle wrote; and: “Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and teaching”; and again: “If anyone does not obey our word through this letter, mark that man, and do not mix with him, so that he may be ashamed.”

Question. If someone presses the brothers hard even over small sins, saying, “You must repent,” is he not himself without compassion, and does he not destroy love?

Answer. Since the Lord has firmly declared that “not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all is accomplished,” and has pronounced that “for every idle word that men speak they will give account on the day of judgment,” nothing should be despised as small. “For he who despises a thing,” it says, “will be despised by it.” Besides, what sin will anyone dare to call small, when the Apostle has pronounced that “through the transgression of the law you dishonour God”? And if “the sting of death is sin”, not this sin or that, but plainly, without distinction, every sin, then it is the one who keeps quiet who is without compassion, not the one who reproves; just as it is the one who leaves the poison in a man bitten by a venomous creature, not the one who draws it out. And it is he who destroys love. For it is written: “He who spares the rod hates his son; but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”

Question. How ought one to repent of each sin, and what fruits worthy of repentance should one show?

Answer. By taking up the disposition of him who said, “I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness”; and by doing what is said in the sixth psalm and in many other places, and what the Apostle testifies of those who grieved in a godly way over another who had sinned: “For see,” he says, “what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what defence, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what punishment, what zeal! In everything you have shown yourselves to be pure in the matter.” And by multiplying the opposite good deed, as Zacchaeus did.

Question. Who is he who confesses in word that he repents, but does not correct his sin?

Answer. Of such a one I reckon it is written: “If your enemy entreats you with a loud voice, do not be persuaded by him; for there are seven wickednesses in his soul”; and elsewhere: “As a dog when it returns to its own vomit becomes hateful, so is a man who by his own wickedness has turned back to his own sin.”

Question. What is the judgment on those who take the part of sinners?

Answer. Heavier, I think, than that of him of whom it is said: “It is better for him that a donkey's millstone be hung around his neck and he be thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.” For the one who has sinned no longer receives rebuke for his correction, but support for the confirming of his sin, and he urges others on to the same passions. So that to the one who takes his part, unless he shows fruits worthy of repentance, the Lord's saying applies: “If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

Question. How should one who truly repents be received?

Answer. As the Lord taught, saying: “He calls together his friends and neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”

Question. How should we be disposed toward one who sins without repenting?

Answer. As the Lord commanded, saying: “If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector”; and as the Apostle taught, writing: “that you keep away from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which they received from us.”

Question. With what kind of fear and what kind of tears ought a soul that has been wretched in many sins to withdraw from its sins, and with what hope and disposition should it come to God?

Answer. First, it ought to hate its former life, now condemned, loathing and abhorring the very memory of it; for it is written: “I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness, but your law I have loved.” Next, it should recognize the time of repentance as the teacher of fear and of punishment, and as the time for tears, as David taught in the sixth psalm; being fully assured of the cleansing of sins through the blood of Christ, in the greatness of the mercy and the multitude of the compassions of God, who said: “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool.” Then, having received the freedom and the strength to be well-pleasing to God, it says: “Weeping will lodge in the evening, and in the morning gladness. You turned my mourning into joy for me; you tore off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, so that my glory may sing to you.” And coming forward in this way, it sings to God, saying: “I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have taken me up, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me.”

Question. How does one achieve hatred of sins?

Answer. Hatred of the causes of such things always arises from an unpleasant and painful result. If, then, someone is fully convinced how many and how great are the evils of which sins are the cause, of his own accord and from the heart he comes to feel hatred of them, such as he showed who said: “I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness.”

Question. How may the soul be fully assured that God has forgiven it its sins?

Answer. If it sees itself in the disposition of him who said: “I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness.” For God, who sent his only-begotten Son for the forgiveness of our sins, has for his part forgiven all beforehand. But since holy David sings of mercy and judgment, and testifies that God is merciful and just, it is necessary that what has been said by the prophets and the apostles in the passages on repentance be done by us, so that the judgments of God's righteousness may be shown and his mercy be brought to completion in the forgiveness of sins.

Question. Whether one who has sinned after baptism ought [to despair …]

Answer. If it were possible to count the multitude of God's compassions and to measure the greatness of God's mercy, then let there be despair in comparison with the multitude and greatness of our sins. But if sins, as is likely, can be measured and numbered, while it is impossible to measure God's mercy or to number his compassions, then it is not a time for despair, but for recognizing mercy and condemning sins, whose forgiveness is set before us in the blood of Christ, as it is written. That we ought not to despair we are taught in many places and in many ways, but especially by the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ about the son who took his father's property and squandered it on sins. What a feast, and how great, his repentance was worthy of, we learn from the Lord's own words. And through Isaiah God says: “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool.” This, we ought to know, is true only if the manner of repentance, coming from a disposition that abhors sin, is worthy of note, as is written in both the Old and the New Testament, and the fruit is worthy, as has been said in the question on this.

Question. By what fruits ought true repentance to be tested?

Answer. The manner of those who repent, the disposition of those who withdraw from sin, and the zeal for fruits worthy of repentance have been stated in their own places.

Question. What is the meaning of “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” And in what matters is it mine to forgive?

Answer. The authority to forgive is not given absolutely, but in the obedience of the one who repents and in agreement with the one who cares for his soul. For it is written of such cases: “If two of you agree on earth about any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” As for “in what matters”, there is no need even to ask, since the New Testament has shown us no distinction, but promises forgiveness of every sin to those who repent in a worthy manner; and above all the Lord has promised in his own person concerning every …

Question. Why is it that sometimes the soul, even without making an effort, is pierced with compunction almost of itself, as if pain had fallen on it, and at other times is so without feeling that even when it forces itself it cannot be pierced?

Answer. Such compunction is a gift of God: either to stir up desire, so that the soul, having tasted the sweetness of such pain, may be eager to make it habitual; or to show that by more earnest care the soul can be in compunction always, so that those who have lost it through negligence have no excuse. But forcing oneself and being unable is at once a proof of our negligence at other times (for it is not possible, without practice and much and continual exercise, to master something suddenly on coming to it), and at the same time it shows that the soul is ruled by other passions and is not allowed by them to be free even for what it wishes, according to the observation stated by the Apostle, who says: “But I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I wish, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do”; and again: “But now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” God permits this too to happen to us for our good, so that perhaps, through what it suffers against its will, the soul may come to perceive what masters it, and recognizing itself in the things in which it serves sin unwillingly, may return to its senses out of the snare of the devil, finding God's mercy ready for the help of those who truly repent.

Question. If someone thinks in his mind about eating, and then condemns himself, will he too be charged as one who was anxious?

Answer. If the thought comes before the time of hunger, when nature is not troubling him, the distraction of the soul is plain, and it accuses the soul both of attachment to present things and of negligence about what pleases God. Yet even so God's mercy is ready. For whoever condemns himself is released from the charge by the word of repentance, if he guards against the slip in future, remembering the Lord who said: “See, you have been made well; sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” But if, when nature compels and hunger prevails, sensation stirs the thought, but reason conquers by its zeal and leisure for better things, then the thought does not deserve condemnation, but the victory deserves praise.

Question. Whether, in a brotherhood, one who once sinned should be entrusted with some charge after much ascetic training; and if so, what kind.

Answer. Remembering the Apostle, who says: “Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many, so that they may be saved,” we ought to take great care that we put no hindrance in the way of the Gospel of Christ, and that we do not become a stumbling block to the weak, nor build anyone up toward evil. Therefore in such cases too it is necessary to consider and test what serves the building up of faith and the progress of every virtue in Christ.

Question. If someone is suspected of a sin but does not commit it openly, should he be watched so that what he is suspected of may be found out?

Answer. Evil suspicions, those that come from a choice that delights in evil, are condemned by the Apostle. But the one entrusted with the care of all ought to watch over everyone in the love of Christ and with the desire to heal the one suspected, so that what the Apostle said may come about: “That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

Question. Whether one who has been found in sins ought to avoid fellowship with those of other beliefs, or also to keep apart from those who live wickedly.

Answer. Since the Apostle said, “that you keep away from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which they received from us,” all fellowship of anyone at all with anything forbidden, in thought, word, or deed, is harmful and dangerous. But those who have been found in sins must be even more careful. First, because the soul that has become accustomed to sin is, for the most part, more prone to slip into it; and next, because, just as with those who are sick in body the care involves stricter watching, so that they must often refuse even what benefits the healthy, so also with those whose souls are sick there is need of much more guarding and care. How great the harm is from fellowship with sinners, the same Apostle shows in the case of those who think wrongly about God, whose wrong belief does not let them be sound even in other matters, since because of it they are once for all handed over to dishonourable passions, as is shown in many places, and also from what is said in the Epistle to the Romans about certain people: “And since they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a worthless mind, to do what is not fitting; filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, proud, boastful, inventors of evils, disobedient to parents, senseless, faithless, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the decree of God, did not understand that those who do such things are worthy of death; and not only do them, but also approve of those who practise them.”

Question. Where do distraction and wandering thoughts come from, and how shall we correct them?

Answer. Distraction comes from idleness of the mind when it is not busied with what is necessary. And the mind is idle and unconcerned from unbelief that God is present, “who tries the hearts and reins.” For if it believed this, it would surely do what is said: “I set the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved.” And one who achieves this and the like will never dare, nor have leisure, to turn over in his mind anything not ordered to the building up of faith, even if it seems good, much less anything forbidden and not pleasing to God.

Question. Where do unseemly fantasies at night come from?

Answer. They come from the strange movements of the soul during the day. But if one's soul is purified in leisure for the judgments of God, and is in continual meditation on what is good and pleasing to God, its dreams too will be of that kind.

Question. To what words does the judgment on idle talk extend?

Answer. In general, every word that does not contribute to the purpose set before us in the Lord is idle. And so great is the danger of such a word that, even if what is said is good, but is not ordered to the building up of faith, the one who spoke does not find safety in the goodness of the word; rather, by not ordering what he said to building up, he grieves the Holy Spirit of God. For the Apostle taught this clearly, saying: “Let no rotten word proceed out of your mouth, but only such as is good for the building up of faith, that it may give grace to those who hear”; and he adds: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed.” And what need is there even to say how great an evil it is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God?

Question. What is reviling?

Answer. Every word spoken from a disposition to dishonour is reviling, even if the word itself does not seem insulting. This is clear from the Gospel, which says of the Jews: “They reviled him and said to him: You are that man's disciple.”

Question. What is slander?

Answer. I consider there are two occasions on which it is permitted to say something bad about someone: when one needs to take counsel with others approved for the purpose on how the one who has sinned may be corrected; and again when it becomes necessary to safeguard some who through ignorance might often join in with evil as if it were good, since the Apostle commands us not to mix with such people, lest anyone bring a snare on his own soul. This we find the same Apostle did when he wrote to Timothy: “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; guard against him yourself, for he strongly opposed our words.” But apart from such necessity, whoever says anything against anyone in order to discredit or disparage him is a slanderer, even if what he says is true …

Question. What does one who slanders a brother, or who listens to a slanderer and puts up with him, deserve?

Answer. Both deserve to be excluded. For “him who secretly slanders his neighbour, him I drove out.” And elsewhere it is said: “Do not listen gladly to a slanderer, lest you be cut off.”

Question. And if someone slanders the superior, how shall we regard him?

Answer. The judgment on this is plain from the wrath of God against Miriam when she spoke against Moses: God did not leave her sin unpunished, even when Moses himself entreated him.

Question. If someone answers another in too bold a voice and with bold words, and when reminded says, “I have nothing evil in my heart,” should he be believed?

Answer. Not all the passions of the soul are evident to everyone, nor even to the one who suffers them, just as with those of the body. As, then, with the body those with knowledge have certain signs of hidden diseases, even of those that escape the sufferer's perception, so also with the soul: even if the one who sins does not perceive his own passion, we must believe the Lord, who assured both him and those with him that “the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things.” For the bad man often even feigns a good word or deed; but for the good man to feign anything bad is impossible. For it says: “Providing what is good, not only before the Lord, but also before men.”

Question. In what way can one keep from anger?

Answer. If he always considers God as overseer, and the Lord as present and looking on. For what subject ever dares, under the eyes of his ruler, anything that displeases him? And if he does not expect obedience from others but prepares himself for obedience, counting all others better than himself. For if he seeks obedience for his own need, let him know that the word of the Lord teaches each one to serve the others; but if he is punishing disobedience to the Lord's commandment, there is no need of anger, but of pity and compassion, after the example of him who said: “Who is weak, and I am not weak?”

Question. How shall we cut out the passion of evil desire?

Answer. By a burning desire for the will of God, and such a desire as he showed who said: “The judgments of the Lord are true, righteous altogether; more to be desired than gold and much precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.” For the desire for better things, when it has the enjoyment of what is desired in its power and reach, always compels one to despise and turn away from lesser things, as all the saints taught; how much more from what is base and deserving of shame?

Question. Whether it is not permitted to laugh at all.

Answer. Since the Lord condemns those who laugh now, it is clear that there is never a time for laughter for the believer, and especially amid so great a multitude of those who dishonour God by transgressing the law and are dying in sin, over whom we ought to be dejected and to groan.

Question. Where does untimely and excessive drowsiness come from, and how shall we put it away?

Answer. Such drowsiness comes when the soul has grown sluggish in its thoughts about God, and we despise the judgments of God. And we put it away when we take up a genuine and worthy conception of the majesty of God and a desire for his will, after the example of him who said: “If I give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, or rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob.”

Question. How is the man-pleaser shown up?

Answer. When he shows zeal before those who praise him, but becomes sluggish before those who blame him. For if he wishes to please the Lord, he will be the same always and everywhere, fulfilling what is said: “By the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left; through glory and dishonour; through evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true.”

Question. How may one escape the passion of man-pleasing, and looking about for the praises of men?

Answer. By full assurance of God's presence, by undistracted care to be well-pleasing to God, and by burning desire for the blessings that come from the Lord. For no one, in the sight of his master, is distracted into pleasing a fellow servant to the dishonour of his master and his own condemnation.

Question. How is the proud man recognized, and how is he cured?

Answer. He is recognized by his seeking pre-eminence; and he is cured if he believes the judgment of him who said: “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” One must know, however, that however much someone fears the judgment on pride, the passion cannot be cured unless he withdraws from all practices of pre-eminence; just as one cannot unlearn a language or any craft whatever without completely withdrawing not only from doing or speaking anything in that craft, but also from hearing those who speak it and seeing those who practise it. This must be observed with every vice as well.

Question. Whether one ought to seek honour.

Answer. We have been taught to render honour to whom honour is due, but we have been forbidden to seek honour, since the Lord said: “How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” So seeking glory from men is proof of unbelief and estrangement from godliness, since the Apostle said: “If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” And if those who receive glory given by men were condemned in this way, those who seek glory not given have a judgment beyond words.

Question. In what way can one who is sluggish toward the commandment take up zeal?

Answer. By being fully assured of the presence of God the Master, who watches over all things, and of the threat against the sluggish, and of the hope of the great reward from the Lord, who promised through Paul the apostle that “each will receive his own reward according to his own labour”; and of all such things as are written to rouse each one's zeal, or endurance, to the glory of God.

Question. If a brother is given an order and speaks against it, but later goes of his own accord [to do it] …

Answer. In so far as he spoke against it as a contradicter, and provoked others to do the same, let him know that he is liable to that judgment: “Every evil man stirs up contradictions; but the Lord will send a merciless angel against him.” And let him be fully assured that it is not a man he contradicts or obeys, but the Lord himself, who said: “He who hears you hears me; and he who rejects you rejects me.” And having first been pierced with compunction, let him make his apology, and then, if he is permitted, let him do the work.

Question. And if someone obeys but grumbles?

Answer. Since the Apostle said, “Do all things without grumbling and disputing,” the one who grumbles is estranged from the unity of the brothers, and his work from their use. And such a one is clearly sick with unbelief and with doubt about the hope.

Question. If a brother grieves a brother, how ought he to make amends?

Answer. If he grieved him in the way the Apostle did, who said, “For you were grieved in a godly way, so that you suffered loss from us in nothing,” it is not the one who caused grief who needs to make amends; rather, the one grieved ought [to show] the marks of godly [grief] … [If he has committed] such a sin, let him fulfil what the Lord said: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

Question. And if the one who caused the grief will not bring himself to apologize?

Answer. We ought to carry out in his case what the Lord said about one who has sinned and not repented: “And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.”

Question. And if, when the one who caused grief apologizes, the one grieved will not be reconciled?

Answer. The Lord's judgment on such a one is plain in the parable of the servant and his fellow servant, who, when entreated, would not be patient: “When his fellow servants saw what had happened,” it says, “they told their lord; and the lord was angry, and revoked his favour toward him, and handed him over to the torturers until he should pay what was owed.”

Question. How ought one to regard the one who wakes him for prayer?

Answer. If one recognizes the loss that comes from sleep, in that the soul is not even aware of itself, and knows the gain of wakefulness, and above all the surpassing glory when one is brought to God in prayer, as to one who bestows great benefits beyond all desire, he will heed the one who wakes him, whether for prayer or for any commandment at all.

Question. And if the one who is woken is sullen or even angry, what does he deserve?

Answer. For the present, exclusion and going without food, in the hope that, pierced with compunction, he may recognize how many and how great the good things are of which he deprives himself without feeling it, and so, turning back, may rejoice in the grace of him who said: “I remembered God and was glad.” But if he remains without feeling, let him be cut off like a rotten and corrupt member from the body. For it is written: “It is better that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

Question. If someone, having heard the Lord say, “The servant who knew his master's will and did not do it, nor prepared himself for his will, will be beaten with many blows; but the one who did not know, and did what deserved blows, will be beaten with few,” neglects to learn the Lord's will, does he have that consolation?

Answer. Such a one is plainly feigning ignorance, and the judgment on his sin is inescapable. “For if I had not come and spoken to them,” says the Lord, “they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin,” since holy Scripture everywhere proclaims the will of God to all. So such a one is not judged more lightly with those who did not know, but is condemned more severely with those of whom it is written: “Like a deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor of a drug skilfully prepared by a wise man.” The one, however, who is entrusted with the stewardship of the word, if he neglects to declare it, is judged as a murderer, as it is written.

Question. Whether one who puts up with another in doing a sin is guilty of the sin.

Answer. This judgment is plain from the Lord's words to Pilate: “He who delivered me to you has the greater sin.” For it is clear from this that Pilate too, in putting up with those who had delivered him, had sin, even if less. Adam shows this plainly too in putting up with Eve, and Eve in putting up with the serpent; for none of them was let go unpunished as innocent. And God's very indignation against them shows this pointedly; for when Adam offered by way of defence, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me, and I ate,” God answers: “Because you listened to the voice of your wife, and ate of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat of this alone, cursed is the ground in your works,” and so on.

Question. Whether one should keep silent toward those who sin.

Answer. That one should not is plain from the Lord's commands: in the Old Testament he says, “You shall surely reprove your neighbour, and you shall not incur sin because of him”; and in the Gospel: “If your brother sins against you, go, rebuke him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen, take with you one or two more, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and tax collector.” How great the judgment on this sin is may be learned, first, from the Lord's general pronouncement: “He who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him”; and then from the histories recorded in both the Old and the New Scripture. For see: when Achar stole the golden tongue and the cloak, the wrath of the Lord came on the whole people, although they knew neither the sinner nor the sin, until the man was revealed and suffered that fearful destruction together with all his household. And Eli, although he did not keep silent toward his sons, who were pestilent sons, but often admonished them, saying, “No, children, it is not a good report I hear about you,” and set out at length both the outrage of the sin and the inescapability of the judgment, yet because he did not punish them at all, nor show the zeal against them that was fitting, so provoked the wrath of God that the people perished together with his sons, the ark itself was taken by the foreigners, and he himself died a pitiful death on top of all this. If, then, so great a wrath was kindled against those who were not accomplices of the sinner, and against those who forbade and protested against the sin, what could one say of those who know and keep silent? Unless they show what was spoken by the Apostle to the Corinthians, when he said, “Why did you not rather mourn, so that he who has done this deed might be removed from among you?” and what he afterwards testified of them, writing, “For see what earnestness this very godly grief has produced in you: what defence, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! In everything you have shown yourselves to be pure in the matter”, they all run the risk, now too, of suffering the same destruction together, or even a worse one, inasmuch as one who rejects the Lord is worse than one who rejected the law of Moses, and so is one who dares the same as one who sinned and was condemned before him. For “sevenfold vengeance is taken for Cain, but for Lamech seventy times seven,” since he sinned in the same way …

Question. To what point is covetousness judged?

Answer. When one oversteps the boundary of the law. According to the Old Testament, this is to care more for oneself than for one's neighbour; for it is written: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” According to the Gospel, it is to be anxious for anything for oneself beyond what is needed for the present day, like the man who heard: “Fool, this night they demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” To which he adds more generally: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not [rich] toward God.”

Question. What is it to be vainglorious in display?

Answer. Everything that is taken up not for need but for adornment is open to the charge of vain display.

Question. If someone refuses the more costly kinds of clothing, but wants the cheap thing itself, whether cloak or shoe, to look becoming on him, does he sin, or what passion is he sick with?

Answer. One who wants it to look becoming on him so as to please men is plainly sick with man-pleasing, distracted from God, and gives full proof of the passion of vain display even in cheap things.

Question. What is “Raca”?

Answer. A local word for a milder insult, used toward those closer to one.

Question. Since the Apostle says at one time, “Let us not become vainglorious,” and at another, “Not with eye-service, as man-pleasers,” who is the vainglorious man, and who the man-pleaser?

Answer. I consider that the vainglorious man is one who does or says something merely for worldly glory from those who see or hear; and the man-pleaser one who acts according to some man's wish in order to please him, even if what is done deserves dishonour.

Question. What is defilement of the flesh, and what is defilement of the spirit, and how shall we be cleansed of them? Or what is sanctification, and how shall we gain it?

Answer. Defilement of the flesh would be mixing with those who themselves do what is forbidden; defilement of the spirit, being indifferent toward those who think or do such things. One is cleansed when he heeds the Apostle, who says not even to eat with such a one, and other such things; or when he experiences what was said by David: “Despondency took hold of me because of the sinners who forsake your law”; and shows such grief as the Corinthians showed when they were reproached for having been indifferent toward the one who had sinned, in everything showing themselves to be pure in the matter. Sanctification is to be dedicated to the holy God wholly and without interruption at every time, through care and zeal for what pleases him. For what is maimed is unacceptable among offerings, and to drag what has once been dedicated to God into common and human use is impious and not to be dared.

Question. What is self-love, and how does the self-lover recognize himself?

Answer. Many things are said in a loose sense, as for example: “He who loves his soul will lose it; and he who hates his soul in this world will keep it for eternal life.” The self-lover, then, is one who loves himself, as he supposes. And he recognizes himself if he does what he does for his own sake, even if what is done is according to the commandment. For to fall short in anything that serves a brother's need, whether in soul or body, for the sake of one's own rest, already makes the vice of self-love plain even to others; and its end is destruction.

Question. What is the difference between bitterness, rage, anger, and provocation?

Answer. The difference between rage and anger lies perhaps in disposition and impulse: one who is angry has the passion in his disposition only, as he shows who said, “Be angry and do not sin”; while one in a rage already shows something more: “They have rage,” it says, “after the likeness of the serpent”; and, “Herod was furious with the people of Tyre and Sidon.” And the more violent movement that follows rage is called provocation. Bitterness reveals a more dreadful contrivance of wickedness.

Question. Since the Lord declared, “He who exalts himself will be humbled,” and the Apostle commands, “Do not set your mind on high things,” and elsewhere says, “Boasters, arrogant, puffed up with conceit,” and again, “Love is not puffed up,” who is the high-minded man, who the boaster, who the arrogant, who the conceited, and who the puffed-up?

Answer. The high-minded man would also be the one who exalts himself, who thinks great things and is elated over the good deeds he possesses, like that Pharisee, and does not associate with the lowly. The same might also be called puffed up, as in the charge against the Corinthians. The boaster is one who does not keep in line with what has been laid down, nor fulfils the command “to walk by the same rule, to be of the same mind,” but devises his own way of righteousness and godliness. The arrogant man is one who brags of what he has and makes it his business to appear more than he is. The conceited man is either perhaps the same as the arrogant or close to him, according to what the Apostle said: “He is conceited, understanding nothing.”

Question. If someone has a fault that cannot be corrected, and is harmed by being reproved too often, is it better to leave him alone?

Answer. This has been said elsewhere too: those who sin must be turned back with patience, in the way the Lord showed. But if reproof and rebuke by the majority are not enough for his turning back, as with the Corinthian, such a one must be regarded as a Gentile. To leave alone one condemned by the Lord is in no way safe for anyone, since the Lord said that it is better for someone to lose one eye, or one hand, or one foot, and enter the kingdom, than by sparing any of these to be thrown whole into the hell of fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; and since the Apostle testifies that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Question. Is only one who lies deliberately judged, or also one who through ignorance simply says something contrary to the truth?

Answer. The Lord's judgment is plain even on those who sin through ignorance, since he said: “The one who did not know, and did what deserved blows, will be beaten with few.” But everywhere repentance worthy of the name holds a sure hope of forgiveness.

Question. If someone only intends to do something and does not do it, is he too judged as a liar?

Answer. If what he intended to do is according to the commandment, he is condemned not only as a liar but also as disobedient. For God tries the hearts and reins.

Question. If someone, under the sway of a prior impulse, has resolved to do something that does not please God, what ought he rather to do: overturn what was wrongly resolved, or carry out the sin for fear of lying?

Answer. Since the Apostle says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as from ourselves,” and the Lord himself confesses, “I can do nothing of myself,” and again, “The words that I speak to you I do not speak from myself,” and elsewhere says, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me,” such a one ought to repent: first, because he dares to resolve anything of himself, whatever it may be, for one ought not to do even good things on one's own authority; and next, and more seriously, [because he resolved what is contrary to the commandment]. That what has been resolved on impulse contrary to the Lord's commandment must be overturned is shown clearly in the case of the apostle Peter, who resolved on impulse, “You shall never wash my feet”; but when he heard the Lord declare, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me,” he at once changed his mind and said, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

Question. If someone is neither able to work nor willing to learn the psalms, what should be done with him?

Answer. Since the Lord said in a parable about the barren fig tree, “Cut it down; why does it even use up the ground?”, it is necessary to apply every care to him; but if he will not bear it, what has been ordained for one who persists in sin must be observed in his case too. For one who is idle in what is good is judged with the devil and his angels.

Question. What must one do to be condemned as one who hid the talent?

Answer. Whoever keeps back any grace of God at all for his own enjoyment, and does not benefit others with it, is condemned as hiding the talent.

Question. What must one do to be condemned like those who grumbled against the last?

Answer. Each is condemned for his own sin, and those who grumbled for their grumbling. Others …

Question. Since our Lord Jesus Christ says, “It is better for him that a donkey's millstone be hung around his neck and he be thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble,” what is it to cause to stumble? And how shall we guard against it, so that so fearful a judgment may not come upon us?

Answer. One causes stumbling by breaking the law in word or deed and leading another into lawlessness, as the serpent did Eve, and Eve Adam; or by hindering someone from doing the will of God, as Peter did the Lord when he said, “God be merciful to you, Lord; this shall not happen to you,” and heard, “Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, for you do not set your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men”; or by building up the mind of the weak toward something forbidden, as is written in the Apostle, who says: “For if anyone sees you, who have knowledge, reclining at table in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, since he is weak, be built up to eat food offered to idols?” To which he adds: “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause my brother to stumble.”

Stumbling arises from several causes. For either the stumbling comes from the one who causes it, or the being caused to stumble happens through the one who stumbles; and in these cases again in different ways: sometimes through inexperience on the part of the one or the other. And there are times when, in rightly handling the word, the wickedness of those who stumble becomes plainer; and likewise in deeds. For the one who stumbles stumbles either when someone does God's commandment, or when he freely uses things that lie within his own authority. When, then, people take offence at what is done according to the commandment and stumble over it (as in the Gospel some did over what the Lord did and said according to the will of the Father), we must remember the Lord's answer about such people, when the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the saying?” To them he says: “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” And one could find many such things both in the Gospels and in the Apostle. But when someone takes offence or stumbles at things that lie within our own authority, we must then call to mind the Lord's words to Peter, when he said, “Then the sons are free. But so that we do not cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth you will find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and for you”; and the words of the Apostle in his letter to the Corinthians, where he says, “I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause my brother to stumble”; and again, “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, or do anything by which your brother takes offence, or stumbles, or is made weak.”

How fearful it is to disregard a brother who stumbles over things that seem to lie within our authority is shown by the Lord's command, which forbids every kind of causing to stumble altogether, saying: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” And the Apostle bears witness, saying at one time, “But rather decide this, not to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in a brother's way”; and at another forbidding the outrage more strongly with fuller argument, when he says: “For if anyone sees you, who have knowledge, reclining at table in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, since he is weak, be built up to eat food offered to idols? And through your knowledge the weak brother is destroyed, for whom Christ died.” To which he adds: “Thus, sinning against the brothers and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause my brother to stumble.” And elsewhere, having said, “Or is it only I and Barnabas who have no right to refrain from working?”, he goes on to say: “But we have not made use of this right, but we endure all things, so that we may put no hindrance in the way of the Gospel of Christ.”

If causing a brother to stumble over things that lie within our authority has been shown to be so fearful, what could one say of those who cause stumbling by doing or saying what is forbidden? And above all when the one causing the stumbling appears to have greater knowledge, or is ranked in the priestly order: he ought to be set before the others as a rule and pattern, and if he overlooks even a little of what is written, whether by doing what is forbidden, or by leaving undone what is commanded, or by keeping silent about any such thing at all, even in this alone his judgment is so great that “the blood of the one who sins,” it says, “will be required at his hands.”

Question. How does someone hold down the truth in unrighteousness?

Answer. When he misuses the good things given by God for his own wishes, which the Apostle renounced when he said, “For we are not, like many, peddling the word of God”; and again, “For we never came with a word of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for covetousness, God is witness; nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others.”

Question. What is strife, and what is rivalry?

Answer. It is strife when someone is eager to do something so as not to appear inferior to someone else; rivalry is to challenge and provoke others to the like by what one does for show or out of vainglory. For the Apostle at one time, when he mentions rivalry, joins vainglory to it, saying, “Nothing from rivalry or vainglory”; and at another, putting vainglory first, he forbids rivalry along with it under another name, saying: “Let us not become vainglorious, challenging one another.”

Question. What is uncleanness, and what is licentiousness?

Answer. The law has shown what uncleanness is, using the word of things that happen involuntarily from natural necessity. Licentiousness, it seems to me, is indicated by the most wise Solomon when he called a man pleasure-loving and without pain; so that licentiousness is a disposition of soul that does not have or does not bear the pain of the contest, just as incontinence is that which has no mastery over the pleasures that trouble it.

Question. What is the mark of rage, and what the mark of reasonable indignation, and how is it that, often beginning with indignation, we find ourselves in a rage?

Answer. The mark of rage is an impulse of the soul bent on harming the one who provoked it; the mark of knowledgeable indignation is the aim of correcting the one who has sinned, from a disposition displeased at what was done. That a soul beginning from good should fall into evil is nothing strange; one could find many such cases. Therefore we must remember the God-inspired Scripture, which says, “They have set stumbling blocks for me beside the path”; and again, “And if anyone competes, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully”; and we must guard everywhere against excess, untimeliness, and disorder. For through the fault of each of these, even what seemed good has often changed into evil.

Question. How should we deal with one who eats no less than the rest, whose body is not worn down, and who is not known to be ill, yet laments that he is too weak for work?

Answer. Every pretext of idleness is a pretext of sin; for one must show zeal, as also endurance, even to death. That sluggishness yoked with wickedness condemns the sluggard is plain from the Lord's words, when he said: “You wicked and sluggish servant.”

Question. How should we deal with one who misuses clothing or shoes? For when he is reproached, he suspects the one reproaching him of pettiness and grumbling. And if after the fitting second and third exhortation he persists in the same, what should be done with him?

Answer. The Apostle rules out misuse, saying: “As using this world, and not misusing it.” For the measure of use is the unavoidable necessity of need; use beyond need carries the sickness of covetousness, or love of pleasure, or vainglory. And one who persists in the sin has the judgment of one who does not repent.

Question. There are some who seek the tastier among foods rather than more of them; and others want more rather than what is tasty, for the sake of being filled. How, then, should both be brought to full conviction?

Answer. Both are sick: the one with love of pleasure, the other with greed. And neither the lover of pleasure nor the greedy man, in any matter whatever, is outside condemnation. Both, then, must be cared for compassionately, for the healing of the passion. But if they do not let their sickness be healed, the judgment on those who do not repent is plain.

Question. If someone in the brotherhood behaves unbecomingly at meals, eating or drinking too greedily, should he be reproved?

Answer. Such a one does not keep the Apostle's command, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”; and again, “Let all things be done decently and in order”; and he needs correction, unless some necessity of toil or haste presses on him; but even then one must zealously guard against giving offence.

Question. How should one be corrected who reproves the one who sins not from a desire for his brother's correction but from a passion to avenge himself, and who persists in the same passion after repeated exhortation?

Answer. Let such a one be recognized as a lover of self and a lover of power; and let the manner of correction be made plain to him according to the knowledge of godliness. But if he persists in the vice, the judgment against those who do not repent is clear.

Question. We need to be taught from Scripture whether those should be excluded who leave the brotherhood and wish to live a solitary life, or with a few others, following the same aim of godliness.

Answer. Since the Lord has often said, “The Son does nothing of himself,” and, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me,” and the Apostle testifies that “the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that we may not do whatever we wish,” everything chosen according to one's own will is alien to those who are godly. We have answered more fully about such matters in what was said at length.

Question. Whether it is consistent to say that Satan is the cause of every sin, whether in thought, word, or deed.

Answer. In general, I think that Satan by himself cannot become the cause of sin for anyone; but making use of the movements present within us, sometimes natural ones, sometimes forbidden passions, he tries through them to lead those who are not sober into what belongs to the passions. He makes use of natural movements, as he tried to do with the Lord when he perceived that he was hungry, saying: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”; and of forbidden passions, as with Judas: when he learned that he was sick with love of money, he made use of this passion and hurled the money-lover down into the fall of betrayal by means of the thirty pieces of silver. That evils also spring up from ourselves the Lord shows clearly: “For out of the heart,” he says, “come evil thoughts.” This happens to those who through negligence have left the natural seeds of good things uncultivated, as in what is said in Proverbs: “A foolish man is like a farm, and a man lacking sense like a vineyard. If you leave him alone, he will become barren, and be wholly overgrown with grass, and become forsaken.” And for a soul made barren and forsaken by such negligence, it follows of necessity that it puts forth thorns and thistles, and suffers what is said: “I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” Of this soul it was said before: “And I planted a vine, Sorech,” which is interpreted “choice.” And one could find something similar in Jeremiah, where he speaks in the person of God: “I planted a fruitful vine, wholly true; how have you turned to bitterness, you foreign vine?”

Question. Whether one ought to lie for the sake of some supposedly useful arrangement.

Answer. The Lord's pronouncement does not allow it, since he said once for all that the lie is from the devil, and showed no distinction between lies. And the Apostle too testifies, writing: “And if anyone competes, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully.”

Question. What is deceit, and what is malignity?

Answer. Malignity, as I reckon, is the first and hidden wickedness of character itself; deceit is cunning aimed at plotting, when someone feigns something good and, setting it before another like bait, accomplishes through it the aims of his plot.

Question. Who are the “inventors of evils”?

Answer. Those who, besides the evils usual and familiar to most people, devise and invent other ones in addition.

Question. If someone continually catches himself treating his brother harshly, how will he be corrected?

Answer. This happens, as I gather from the matter itself, either from a mind that imagines itself superior, or from grief at the failings of those who ought to do right. For when something contrary and grievous meets us instead of a good we hoped for, it somehow seizes the soul more violently. More care is needed, so that, if it is the first, we may punish the passion of pride; and if the second, we may show compassion in exhortation and admonition before indignation. But if this way of healing seems ineffective because of the malignity of the underlying passion, then at last let us use even the vehemence of indignation, with compassion, for the benefit and correction of the one who has sinned, at the right time and with reason.

Question. How does it happen that good thoughts and cares pleasing to God seem to fail the mind, and how may we keep this from happening to us?

Answer. Since David said, “My soul slumbered from listlessness,” it is clear that such a thing happens from the soul's slumber and insensibility. For to a soul that is wakeful and sober, cares pleasing to God and good thoughts do not fail; rather it sees itself failing them. For if the eye of the body is not sufficient for the contemplation even of a few of God's works, and having once seen something does not have its fill, but, even looking always at the same thing, does not cease to look, how much more is the eye of the soul, if it is wakeful and sober, insufficient for the contemplation of God's wonders and judgments? “For your judgments,” it says, “are a great deep”; and elsewhere: “Your knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain to it”; and many such things. But if a good thought fails the soul, it is plain that illumination is still failing it: not because what gives light fails, but because what ought to be enlightened is slumbering.

Question. Whether the devout and the indifferent should be rebuked equally, when both are found in the same sin.

Answer. If we look to the disposition of the one who sins and the manner of the sin, we shall also know the manner of the rebuke. For even if the sin of the indifferent man and that of the devout man seem to be the same, yet the difference between them is great. The devout man, being devout, anxious and at the same time struggling to be well-pleasing to God, has erred and slipped through some circumstance, almost against his will; while the indifferent man, taking no account either of himself or of God, and making no difference between sinning and doing right, as the very name shows, is sick with the first and great evils: either contempt of God or unbelief that God exists. For these two become causes of sinning for the soul, as Scripture testifies, saying at one time, “The lawless one says within himself that he will sin; there is no fear of God before his eyes”; and at another, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God; they have become corrupt and abominable in their practices.” So either he has despised God and sins for that reason, or he denies that God exists at all and for that reason is corrupt in his practices, even if he seems to confess him. “For they profess to know God,” it says, “but deny him by their works.” This being so, I reckon that the manner of rebuke for such people must be different. The devout man needs, as it were, a local remedy, and ought to undergo rebuke concerning the very matter in which he erred; but the indifferent man, who has corrupted the whole good of the soul at once and is sick with the most general of evils, whether as one who despises, as I said, or as an unbeliever, ought to be mourned over, admonished, and rebuked until he can be fully convinced either that God is a righteous judge, and fear, or that God exists at all, and be struck with awe. And one must also know that the failings of the devout often happen even through …

Question. Since it is written, “Older women as mothers,” if it happens that the older woman commits the same sin as the younger, is she subject to the same penalty?

Answer. The Apostle taught us to honour older women as mothers, as women who do nothing deserving rebuke. But if it should ever happen that the older woman commits the same sin as the younger, one must first take note of what are, so to speak, the natural failings of each age, and so fix the measure of rebuke fitting for each age. For example, sluggishness is almost natural to old age, but not to youth; while distraction, agitation, rashness, and the like belong to youth, but not to old age, and seem to be helped by the natural heat of youth. So the same sin, sluggishness, say, makes the younger woman deserving of heavier charges, since her age offers no excuse. And the same sin, distraction, or rashness, or agitation, makes the older woman deserving of greater condemnation, since she is helped toward gentleness and calm by her very age. Besides this, one must also examine the manner of the sin in each person, and so apply the fitting manner of healing through the appropriate penalty.

Question. If someone does right in most things but stumbles in one only, how shall we deal with him?

Answer. As the Lord did with Peter.

Question. If someone who has a disorderly and turbulent character, and is reproved for it, says that God made some good and others bad, is he right?

Answer. This opinion was condemned long ago as heretical; for it is blasphemous and impious, and makes the soul prone to slip into sin. So either let him be corrected, or let him be removed from the midst, so that it may not happen that “a little leaven [leavens] the whole lump.”

Question. Whether one may have anything of one's own in a brotherhood.

Answer. This is contrary to the testimony in Acts about those who believed, where it is written: “And no one said that anything of what he possessed was his own.” So whoever says that anything is his own has made himself a stranger to the church of God and to the love of the Lord, who taught by word and deed to lay down one's very life for one's friends, much less external things.

Question. And if someone says, “I neither take from the brotherhood nor give to it, but am content with what is mine,” what shall we observe toward him?

Answer. If he will not bear the teaching of the Lord, who said, “Love one another, as I have loved you,” let us heed the Apostle, who said, “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves,” so that it may not happen that “a little leaven corrupts the whole lump.”

Question. Whether each one may give his old cloak or shoe wherever he wishes, by way of fulfilling the commandment.

Answer. To give or to receive, even according to the commandment, is not for everyone, but for the one entrusted, after testing, with the stewardship. So whether old or new, it is he who will both give and receive, at the proper time for each.

Question. What is worldly care?

Answer. Every care that does not contribute to godliness, even if it seems to have nothing forbidden in it, is worldly.

Question. Since it is written, “A man's own wealth is the ransom of his soul,” and this has not fallen to us, what shall we do?

Answer. If we were eager but unable, let us remember the Lord's answer to Peter when he was anxious about such a thing and said, “See, we have left all and followed you; what then shall we have?” He answers him thus: “Everyone who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the Gospel's, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” But if we did not do this through negligence, let us show our zeal now. And if there is no longer either time or means, let the Apostle comfort us, saying: “I seek not what is yours, but you.”

Question. Whether one may have a garment for the night, whether of hair or of some other kind.

Answer. The use of the hair garment has its own times. For its use is not for the sake of bodily need, but for the mortification and humbling of the soul. But since the possession of two garments has been forbidden, let each judge for himself whether the use can be adopted without the reason just mentioned.

Question. If a brother who has nothing of his own is asked by someone for the very thing he is wearing, what ought he to do, especially if the one asking is naked?

Answer. Whether he is naked or wicked, and whether he asks from need or from greed, it has been said once for all that giving or receiving is not for everyone, but for the one entrusted, after testing, with such stewardship. And let this be kept: “Let each remain in the calling in which he was called.”

Question. Since the Lord commands us to sell our possessions, with what intention should this be done: on the ground that possessions are harmful by nature, or because of the distraction they bring to the soul?

Answer. To this it must first be said that if each of our possessions were evil in itself, it would not be a creature of God; “for every creature of God,” it says, “is good, and nothing is to be rejected.” Next, the Lord's commandment taught us not to throw away possessions as evil and flee them, but to manage them. And one is condemned not because he had them at all, but because he thought wrongly about them or did not use them well. For a disposition toward them that is free of attachment and sound, and their management according to the commandment, contribute to many things, and very necessary ones, for us: sometimes to the cleansing of our own sins, which is why it is written, “But give as alms what is within, and see, all things are clean for you”; sometimes to the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven and the gaining of a treasure that does not fail, according to what is said in another place: “Fear not, little flock, for your heavenly Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old, a treasure that does not fail in the heavens.”

Question. With what intention should one who has once given up his possessions and professed to have nothing of his own use what is necessary for life, such as clothing and food?

Answer. Remembering, as it is written, that it is God who gives food to all flesh. Yet care is needed that, as God's workman, he may be worthy of his food, and that this food is not at his own disposal but is distributed by the one entrusted with this care, at the right time and in the right measure, as it is written: “And it was distributed to each as anyone had need.”

Question. If someone comes to a brotherhood leaving taxes owing, and his relatives are distressed by being made to pay for him, does this not bring scruple and harm either on him or on those who received him?

Answer. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when they asked him whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not, says: “Show me a denarius; whose image and inscription does it have?” And when they said, “Caesar's,” he answers, saying: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Since it is plain from this that those with whom Caesar's things are found were shown to be subject to Caesar's orders, then if this man too came to the brotherhood bringing anything of that kind from Caesar's, let him be liable for the taxes; but if he left everything to his relatives and departed, let there be no scruple, either for him or for those who received him.

Question. Whether it is profitable for those who have just come to learn by heart at once what is from the Scriptures.

Answer. Let this question too be settled by what has been said before. For it is fitting and necessary that each learn from the God-inspired Scripture what serves his need, both for full assurance in godliness and so as not to become accustomed to human traditions.

Question. Whether everyone who wishes should be permitted to learn letters or to devote himself to reading.

Answer. Since the Apostle says, “So that you may not do whatever you wish,” in every matter it is harmful to allow anyone what he chooses by his own will; but everything approved by the superiors must be accepted, even if it is not wished. The charge of unbelief fits this too, since the Lord said, “Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” For he plainly marks out years of life for himself.

Question. If someone says, “I want to profit among you for a short time,” should he be received?

Answer. Since the Lord said, “Him who comes to me I will by no means cast out,” and the Apostle related, “But because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery: to them we did not yield in subjection even for an hour, so that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you,” it is fitting to allow him entry, both because the outcome is uncertain (for often, having profited from the time, he will be pleased with the life once for all, as has often happened), and also to make plain the strictness among us to one who perhaps has rather different suspicions about us. But it is necessary to keep the strictness more carefully in his case too, so that both the truth may be made plain and every suspicion of carelessness removed. For thus we shall please God, and he will either profit or be exposed.

Question. What mind ought the superior to have in what he commands or arranges?

Answer. Toward God, that of a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God, fearing lest he say or ordain anything contrary to the will of God acknowledged in the Scriptures, and be found a false witness of God or sacrilegious, either by bringing in something foreign to the Lord's teaching or by leaving out something pleasing to God. Toward the brothers, “as a nurse cherishes her own children,” being well pleased to share with each, toward what pleases God and benefits all in common, “not only the Gospel of God but also his own soul,” according to the commandment of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who said: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

Question. With what disposition should the one who rebukes rebuke?

Answer. Toward God, with that achieved by David, who said: “I saw the senseless and was wasting away, because they did not keep your words.” Toward those rebuked, with such a disposition as a father and physician would take up when, with compassion and tender mercy, he skilfully treats his own son; and especially when there is pain and the manner of treatment is laborious.

Question. How shall we send away those who come from outside and beg? And should each one who wishes give bread or anything whatever, or should one person be appointed for this too?

Answer. Since the Lord declared that “it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs,” and accepted the saying, “Yet even the dogs eat from their masters' table,” let the one appointed to distribute do this with discernment. And let everyone who does this against his judgment be rebuked as a corrupter of good order, until he learns to keep his own place, since the Apostle said: “Let each one, brothers, remain in that in which he was called.”

Question. Is the one entrusted with the stewardship of what has been dedicated to the Lord obliged to fulfil the saying, “Give to everyone who asks you, and do not turn away from one who wishes to borrow from you”?

Answer. The saying, “Give to everyone who asks you, and do not turn away from one who wishes to borrow from you,” has the character of a testing, as the sequence of the context shows; and what is commanded concerns the wicked, and is something to be done not as a primary rule but according to circumstance. For the primary command of the Lord is, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor”; and again, “Sell your possessions and give alms.” And if it is not without danger to carry what was assigned to some over to others, since the Lord says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and, “It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs,” why does one not judge for himself what is right?

Question. Whether one who leaves the brotherhood for any reason whatever should be held back by exhortation or not; and if so, on what grounds.

Answer. Since the Lord said, “Him who comes to me I will by no means cast out”; and again, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”; and elsewhere, “Which of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of them goes astray, does not leave the ninety-nine and go and seek the one that is astray until he finds it?”, we must by every means care for the one who is sick, and strive to set back in its joint, so to speak, the member that has been dislocated. But if he persists in his wickedness, of whatever kind, we must let him go as a stranger. For it is written: “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind.”

Question. That we must be subject to the elders unto death we have already been taught. But since it happens that the elder himself slips in some matter, we need to be taught whether he should be reproved, and how, and by whom; and if he does not accept it, what should be done.

Answer. This has been stated clearly in the longer answer.

Question. How should charges be entrusted to the brothers: with the superior alone making the test, or with the brothers also voting? And likewise among the sisters.

Answer. If each one has been taught to submit to others even his own opinions, how much more must such matters be done with the testing of those fit for this? For God's stewardship must be entrusted, according to God, to those who have already given proof that they can manage what is entrusted to them in a way pleasing to the Lord. And in general, in every matter the superior must remember holy Scripture, which says: “Do all things with counsel.”

Question. Whether those who enter the brotherhood should be taught crafts at once.

Answer. The superiors will decide.

Question. What penalties should be used in a brotherhood for the turning back of those who sin?

Answer. Let the time and the manner be determined by the judgment of the superiors, according to bodily age, state of soul, and difference of sin.

Question. If someone says he desires to live with a brotherhood, but is often hindered from giving himself once for all to such a life by care for his relatives according to the flesh, or by taxes, should he be granted entry among the brothers?

Answer. To cut short the desire for what is good is not without danger; but neither is it safe to give one who enters an occasion to talk of outside matters foreign to the life according to God. If, however, on entering he gives himself to those within, bringing in nothing of what is outside, he has better hope.

Question. Whether the superior should speak with any sister about what builds up the faith without the superior of the sisters being present.

Answer. In this the Apostle's command is not kept, who said: “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

Question. Whether the superior should converse continually with the superior of the sisters, especially if some of the brothers are harmed by this.

Answer. Since the Apostle said, “For why is my freedom judged by another's conscience?”, it is good to imitate him when he says, “We did not use this right, so that we might put no hindrance in the way of the Gospel of Christ”; and as far as possible to cut short the [meetings], making them rarer and easier to break off …

Question. Whether, when a sister confesses to the elder, the eldress should also be present.

Answer. The confession will be made more decently and more reverently in the presence of the eldress, before the elder, who is able to prescribe with skill the manner of repentance and correction.

Question. Whether, if the elder orders something to be done among the sisters without the knowledge of the eldress, the eldress is reasonably indignant.

Answer. Very much so.

Question. If someone comes to the life according to God, is it fitting for the superior to receive such a one without the opinion of the brothers, or must he first refer it to them too?

Answer. The Lord teaches that over one who repents one calls together friends and neighbours. So it is all the more necessary that the one who comes be received with the knowledge of all the brothers, so that they may rejoice together with one another and pray together.

[Question 113.] Whether one entrusted with the care of souls can keep the saying, “Unless you turn and become like children,” since he has to deal with many and various persons.

Answer. Since the most wise Solomon said, “There is a time for every matter,” one must know that there is a proper time for humility, for authority, for reproof, for exhortation, for forbearance, for frankness, for kindness, for severity, and in short for everything. So at times one should show humility and imitate the children in lowliness, especially when it is time for mutual honours and duties and for bodily service or care, as the Lord taught; and at times one should use the authority which the Lord gave for building up and not for tearing down, when need calls for frankness. And in a time of exhortation one should show kindness, and in a time of severity show zeal, and so with each of the others …

Question. Since the Lord commands, “If anyone compels you to go one mile, go with him two,” and the Apostle teaches us to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ, must one obey everyone who gives an order, whatever it may be?

Answer. The difference between those who give orders ought in no way to impair the obedience of those who receive them; for Moses did not refuse to listen to Jethro when he gave good advice. But since there is no small difference among the things ordered (some are contrary to the Lord's commandment, either corrupting it or defiling it in many ways by an admixture of what is forbidden; some coincide with the commandment; and others, even if they do not coincide with it openly, contribute to it and are, as it were, a help to the commandment), we must remember the Apostle, who said, “Do not despise prophecies; but test all things, hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil”; and again, “Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” So if we are ordered anything that coincides with the Lord's commandment or contributes to it, we must accept it as the will of God with greater zeal and care, fulfilling what is said: “Bearing with one another in the love of Christ.” But when we are ordered by someone anything contrary to the Lord's commandment, corrupting or defiling it, then is the time to say, “We must obey God rather than men,” remembering the Lord, who says, “A stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers”; and the Apostle, who for our safety dared to attack even the angels, when he says: “Even if we ourselves, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, let him be accursed.” From this we are taught that, however close someone may be, however exceedingly distinguished, the one who forbids what the Lord has commanded, or urges us to do what he has forbidden, ought to be shunned, even abhorred, by every one of those who [love God] …

Question. How ought we to obey one another?

Answer. As slaves obey masters, according to what the Lord commanded: “Whoever wishes to be great among you, let him be last of all and servant of all.” To which he adds, more shamingly still: “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”; and according to what the Apostle said: “Through the love of the Spirit serve one another.”

Question. To what extent must one obey, by the standard of pleasing God?

Answer. The Apostle has shown it, setting before us the obedience of the Lord, who “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”; and having said before: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Question. One who is not satisfied with the daily tasks ordered in keeping with the commandment set before us, but seeks to learn a craft: what passion is he sick with, and should he be tolerated?

Answer. Such a one is self-willed, self-pleasing, and unbelieving, because he has not feared the judgment of the Lord, who said: “Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” For if someone expects the Lord every day and every hour, he is anxious not to let today pass idly, and busies himself with nothing further. But if he should be ordered to learn a craft, let him have in obedience the gain of pleasing God, and not in putting it off, the judgment.

Question. One who is zealous for the commandment, and does not the work he is ordered but the one he himself wishes: what reward does he have?

Answer. That of self-pleasing. But since the Apostle says, “Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, to build him up,” and shames us still more by adding, “For even Christ did not please himself,” the self-pleaser ought to recognize his own danger. And the same man is also shown to be insubordinate.

Question. Whether each one may decline the work entrusted to him and seek another.

Answer. Since obedience, as has been said before, has death as its measure, the one who declines the work entrusted to him and seeks another first corrupts obedience and is plainly one who has not denied himself; and then he becomes the cause of many other evils both for himself and for the rest. For he opens a door of contradiction to many, and accustoms himself to it. And since not everyone can judge what is profitable, he often chooses a work harmful to himself. He also produces evil suspicions in the brothers, as if he had some prior attachment either to the work he seeks or to those with whom he would have to work. So in general disobedience is the root of many great evils. But if he thinks he has some reason for declining the work, let him make it known to the superiors and leave it to their judgment.

Question. Whether one may go off anywhere without informing the superior.

Answer. Since the Lord says, “For I have not come of myself, but he sent me,” how much more ought each of us not to give himself leave? For one who gives himself leave is plainly sick with high-mindedness and subject to the judgment of the Lord, who said: “What is exalted among men is an abomination before God.” And in general, to give oneself leave is blameworthy.

Question. Whether one may decline the heavier works.

Answer. One who is genuine in his love for God, and firm in his full assurance of the reward from the Lord, is not content with what has been done, but always seeks an addition and reaches out for more. And even if he seems to do something beyond his strength, he is not at ease as though he had filled up the measure, but is always anxious as one falling short of what is fitting, hearing the Lord command: “When you have done all that is commanded you, then say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we ought to do”; and the Apostle, to whom the world was crucified, and he to the world, was not ashamed to say: “I do not yet count myself to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” He who, although he had the right, as one proclaiming the Gospel, to live by the Gospel, says: “Working in toil and labour night and day, not because we do not have the right, but to give ourselves to you as a pattern to imitate us.” Who, then, is so insensible and unbelieving as ever to be content with what has already been done, or to decline anything as too heavy or toilsome …

Question. If someone, having been penalized by not receiving the blessing, says, “If I do not receive the blessing, I will not eat,” should he be tolerated?

Answer. If the fault deserves so great a penalty that he is also prevented from eating, the one who imposed the penalty will surely judge it. But if he was judged unworthy only of the blessing, and, though allowed to eat, will not bear it, let him be judged as disobedient and contentious in this; and at the same time let him come to know himself and recognize that in seeking this he is not healing himself, but joining sin to sin.

Question. If someone is grieved at not being allowed to do what he cannot do competently, should he be tolerated?

Answer. It has been said in many places about this that in general to follow or give leave to one's own will is contrary to sound reason; and not to submit to the judgment of the majority carries the danger of disobedience and contradiction.

Question. Whether one who happens to find himself somewhere with heretics or pagans should eat with them, or greet them.

Answer. The Lord has not forbidden this greeting, the common one, that is, toward anyone, saying: “If you greet only your friends, what more are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” But about eating together we have the Apostle's instruction on whom we should decline it with, when he says: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the covetous, or swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would have to go out of the world. But now I write to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother if he is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler; not even to eat with such a one.”

Question. One who is entrusted with a work and does something without informing anyone, contrary to what was arranged or beyond what was arranged for him: should he keep the work?

Answer. To take things on oneself is altogether displeasing to God, and is neither fitting nor profitable for those who are eager to keep the bond of peace. If he persists in acting rashly, it is profitable that the work be taken from him. For he does not keep the command of him who said, “Let each one, brothers, remain in that in which he was called”; and still more shamingly: “Not to think more highly than one ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith.”

Question. How might one overcome love of pleasure in foods?

Answer. By resolving always to have the principle of what is profitable as guide and teacher in what is taken for use, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant.

Question. Some say that it is impossible for a man not to be angry.

Answer. If it is possible for a soldier to be angry in the sight of the king, even so the saying has no reason. For if the sight of a man, equal in nature, has checked the passion because of the superiority of his rank, how much more if one is fully assured that he has God as the overseer of his movements? For God, who tries hearts and reins, sees the movements of the soul far more than a man sees what is before his face.

Question. Should one who wishes to practise self-control beyond his strength, so that he is hindered even in the commandment set before him, be allowed to do so?

Answer. The question does not seem to me properly framed. For self-control does not consist in abstaining from foods without reason, in which the severity to the body condemned by the Apostle occurs, but in complete withdrawal from one's own wishes. How great a danger there is of falling away from the Lord's commandment through one's own will is clear from what the Apostle said: “Doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and we were …”

Question. One who fasts much but at the meal cannot bear the common food: what ought he rather to choose, to fast with the brothers and eat with them, or, because of fasting beyond measure, to need other foods at the meal?

Answer. The time for fasting is set not by each one's will but by the need of those who have come to godliness, as the Acts of the Apostles relate and as we learn from the chosen David. If, then, someone fasts on such a principle, he will surely be granted the strength as well. For he who promised is faithful.

Question. How should one fast, when there is need of fasting for something sought for godliness: as one compelled, or with eagerness?

Answer. Since the Lord says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” everything that contributes to godliness, if not done with desire and zeal, is dangerous. So for one who fasts to do it without eagerness is not without danger; but to fast at a time of such need is necessary, since the Apostle, together with his other good deeds, related this too for our teaching: “In fastings often.”

Question. One who does not partake of what the brothers eat but seeks something else: does he do well?

Answer. In general, seeking food is contrary to the commandment, since the Lord said, “Do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not be anxious,” and added more startlingly, “For all the nations seek all these things.” And it belongs to the one in charge to fulfil carefully the saying: “And it was distributed to each as anyone had need.”

Question. One who says, “This harms me,” and is grieved if something else is not given him: what is he?

Answer. It appears that he has not been fully convinced of Lazarus's hope, nor recognized the love of the one entrusted with the care of all, himself included. In general, no one ought to give himself the judgment of what harms or benefits him, but leave it to the one appointed to judge what each needs, who seeks first the benefit of the soul and so, in second place, manages what serves the body's need according to the will of God.

Question. And if he even grumbles over food?

Answer. He has the judgment of those who grumbled in the wilderness. For the Apostle says: “Nor grumble, as some of them grumbled and were destroyed by the destroyer.”

Question. If someone in anger refuses to take something he needs?

Answer. Such a one deserves not to receive it even if he asks, until the superior judges that the passion, or rather the passions, have been healed.

Question. Whether one who is labouring should himself seek something more than usual.

Answer. If he undertakes the labour for the sake of the reward from God, he ought not to seek the consolation for his toil from this source, but to prepare himself for the Lord's reward, knowing that, as he will be granted the recompense for his toil, so he will be granted consolation for his hardship by God who loves mankind. The one, however, who is appointed to carry out the saying, “It was distributed to each as anyone had need,” must of necessity know each of those who toil and care for them as is fitting.

Question. Whether all must gather at the hour of the meal; and how shall we deal with one who is absent and comes after the meal?

Answer. If he was left behind through the necessity of the place or of his work, as keeping the command of him who said, “Let each one, brothers, remain in that in which he was called,” the one who oversees the common good order will examine it and pardon him. But if he could have arrived in time and did not make the effort, let him recognize the charge of negligence and remain without food until the appointed hour on the following day.

Question. Whether it is good to resolve to abstain from some particular food or drink for such and such a time, say.

Answer. Since the Lord said, “Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me,” every resolution of one's own will is perilous. Knowing this, David said: “I have sworn and confirmed it, to keep the judgments of your righteousness,” not my own wishes.

Question. Whether anyone in a brotherhood should be allowed to fast or keep vigil more than the others, according to his own will.

Answer. Since the Lord said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me,” whatever anyone does according to his own will is his own, but alien to godliness; and there is fear that he may hear from God, about what he seems to be doing, “Its turning shall be toward you, and you shall rule over it.” And to want more by comparison with others, even in good things, is a passion of contentiousness arising from vainglory, which the Apostle shows to be forbidden when he says: “For we do not dare to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves.” Therefore, letting go of our own wishes, and of wanting to seem to do something beyond the rest, we must obey the Apostle, who exhorts us, saying: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” For contentiousness, vainglory, and self-pleasing are utterly alien to those who contend lawfully in the good contest. That is why he says at one time, “Let us not become vainglorious”; at another, “If anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor have the churches of God”; and at another, “We ought not to please ourselves,” to which he adds more shamingly, “For even Christ did not please himself.” But if someone thinks he needs more, whether in fasting or in vigil or in anything else, let him disclose the reason itself for which he thinks he needs more to those entrusted with the common care, and let him keep to what they judge. For often what suffices for the need [is achieved] in another way …

Question. When fasting is prolonged, we become feebler for work. Which, then, should we rather do: hinder the work because of the fast, or neglect the fast because of the work?

Answer. Both fasting and eating must be undertaken on the principle proper to godliness: so that when a commandment of God needs to be achieved through fasting, we fast; and when again the commandment of God calls for food that strengthens the body, we eat, not as gluttons but as God's workmen. For we must keep what was said by the Apostle: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Question. If someone does not exercise self-control regarding harmful foods, but partakes unsparingly and falls ill, should care be taken of him?

Answer. Incontinence has its wickedness plain to see, and it is necessary first of all to see to this passion, so that it may be healed. For God, who loves mankind, wishing to show how great an evil the lack of self-control is, has often allowed the soul to indulge the passion of incontinence even in things that harm the body, in the hope that through the bodily illness it suffers from its incontinence it may come to perceive its own harm and be led to self-control in all things. To take care of the body in those harmed by incontinence is perhaps reasonable and becoming to kindness, but not without discernment; rather, we must take thought lest in caring for the body we leave the soul uncared for. So if one sees such a person being instructed with good sense by the care of his body, and also attending to his soul in its own passions, let him give him bodily care; but if, while accepting the care of the body, he is shown to despise his soul, it is better that such a one be left to the pains he suffers from his own incontinence, in the hope that in time, coming to awareness of himself and of eternal punishment, he may take up care for …

Question. Whether strangers should be found in the workshops, or also some of those here who have left their own place.

Answer. Apart from the one entrusted with the supervision of the workers or the management of the works, whoever is found doing this, as one who dissolves the good order of the harmony of the members, let him be stopped even from the going out he had been allowed; and sitting in one place judged suitable for his discipline, let him do his work without distraction and more laboriously than usual, until he learns to keep what was said by the Apostle: “Let each one remain in that in which he was called.”

Question. Whether craftsmen should accept work from anyone without the consent of the one appointed to take care of them.

Answer. Let both, the one who gives and the one who receives, be subject to the judgment of the thief, or of one who consents with the thief.

Question. How should the workers take care of the tools entrusted to them?

Answer. First, as things named for God and dedicated to him; then, as men who without them cannot show the unflagging zeal they owe.

Question. And if someone loses something through negligence, or misuses it through contempt?

Answer. Let the one who misused it be judged as sacrilegious, and the one who lost it as a cause of sacrilege, since all things have been named for the Lord and dedicated to God.

Question. And if he lends something to someone, or takes something, on his own authority?

Answer. Let him be judged as rash and self-willed. For these things belong to the one appointed to take care of them and manage them.

Question. And if, when need presses, the superior asks him for a tool, and he speaks against it?

Answer. How can one who has given himself and his own members to the need of others in the love of Christ speak against the superior about tools, when the care of the tools too belongs to him?

Question. If one busy with the work of the storeroom or the kitchen or some other such task does not manage to be present at the rule of psalmody and prayer, does he suffer no harm to his soul?

Answer. Each one keeps his own rule in his own work, as a member in the body; and he himself suffers harm if he neglects what has been assigned to him, and is in greater danger if he plots against the common good. So let him fulfil in his mind what is written, “Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord”; and if he does not manage to join the others bodily, let him have no scruple, doing what is said: “Let each one remain in that in which he was called.” But one must take care that someone who could fulfil what is assigned in good time, as a pattern for others too, does not make the business of his work a pretext, to the stumbling of the rest, and so fall into the judgment of the negligent.

Question. What measure of authority does one entrusted with the care of the storeroom have in its management?

Answer. Toward the one who, after testing, entrusted him with its arrangement, he should remember the Lord himself, who said, “I can do nothing of myself”; and toward those cared for, he should consider each one's need. For it is written: “It was distributed to each as anyone had need.” And let the same principle hold for all who are entrusted with such charges.

Question. What is the judgment on the steward if he does anything from partiality or contentiousness?

Answer. Since the Apostle at one time commands us to do nothing by partiality, and at another declares, “If anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor have the churches of God,” let such a one be recognized as a stranger to the church of God until he is corrected. Yet it must be tested with much circumspection what each one is fitted for, and so any work be entrusted to him; so that neither those who entrust what does not suit someone are condemned as bad stewards of souls and of the Lord's commandments, nor those entrusted with it seem to find from this a pretext for sin.

Question. And if through negligence he does not give his brother what he needs?

Answer. This judgment is plain from the Lord's words, who said: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food; I was thirsty,” and so on; and that “cursed is everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently.”

Question. Whether one who serves may speak in a louder voice.

Answer. The need of the hearers determines the measure of the voice. So if it is softer, being too sluggish it is close to whispering and deserves blame; but if it is beyond the need, when the hearer could hear even one speaking quietly, it becomes the shouting that is condemned; unless perhaps the sluggishness of the hearer brings us to the necessity of using a shout, and rousing him as if from sleep. For the Lord too is recorded to have done this, as the evangelist says: “But Jesus cried out and said: He who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.”

Question. If someone, fulfilling his turn of service in the kitchen, labours beyond his strength so that he is hindered for days in his usual work, should such service be assigned to him?

Answer. It has been said that the one entrusted with the management of the works must frame the orders with an eye both to the fitness and to the strength of the worker, lest he hear: “Who frames toil into a command.” The one under orders, however, must not speak against it; for obedience has death as its limit.

Question. How ought the sister entrusted with the wool to keep it, and how attend to the women working?

Answer. Keeping the wool as one entrusted with a deposit of God; arranging and managing for each sister her proper work without contentiousness or partiality …

Question. If it happens that the brothers, being few and serving a larger number of sisters, are forced to be separated from one another, being divided up for the works, is this without danger?

Answer. If the care is attested by the Lord's commandment and is carried out according to God, then for each of the workers being well-pleasing to God is achieved in his own work; and their unity with one another lies in all of them being of one soul and one mind, fulfilling what was said by the Apostle: “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit.”

Question. Since we who serve the sick in the hospice are taught to serve them with such a disposition as serving brothers of the Lord, if the one being served is not such, how ought we to regard him?

Answer. Since the Lord said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother,” if someone is not such, but is shown by his sinning to be worthy of that sentence, “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin,” he first needs exhortation and admonition from the superior. But if he persists in the same, the judgment on him is plain, since the same Lord adds, “And the slave does not remain in the house,” and the Apostle commands, “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” For thus those who serve will have no scruple, and all who live together will have safety.

Question. Should one entrusted with the care of the storeroom, or of some other such thing, always keep the charge, or also be changed?

Answer. If he keeps to the knowledge of good order and the strictness of the rule, changing him is superfluous, or rather difficult and hard to manage. But it is necessary to have someone following him, who should be trained in the charge little by little; so that when need requires a successor, we may not be thrown into confusion for lack of one, and often be forced to bring into the work someone unfit, so that from his inexperience the strictness is necessarily corrupted and the reasonable good order dissolved.

Question. With what disposition ought one to serve God, and in general what is this disposition?

Answer. I consider a good disposition to be a desire to please God that is vehement, insatiable, fixed, and unchangeable. It is achieved by intelligent and continual contemplation of the majesty of God's glories, and by grateful thoughts and unceasing remembrance of the good things that have come to us from God. From these there arises in the soul the saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,” after the example of him who said, “As the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” With such a disposition, then, we must serve God, fulfilling what was said by the Apostle: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” and so on.

Question. With what disposition ought one to accept a penalty?

Answer. With that which befits a son who is sick and in anguish for his life, being treated by his father who is also his physician: even if the manner of treatment is bitter and painful, with full assurance of the love and experience of the one who imposes the penalty, and with desire for healing.

Question. What sort of man is one who is aggrieved against the one who penalized him?

Answer. He has recognized neither the danger of sin, especially the danger toward God, nor the gain of repentance; nor has he believed him who said, “But he who loves disciplines diligently”; and he has made himself a stranger to the benefit of him who said, “The righteous man will discipline me in mercy and reprove me.” And such a one lives harmfully with the brotherhood, distracting those who are striving …

Question. With what disposition ought we to serve the brothers?

Answer. As offering our service to the Lord himself, who said: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” It also helps toward achieving such a disposition that those served should be such. Therefore the superiors must take the more earnest care of them, so that they may not, as lovers of the body, be slaves to the belly and to pleasures, but, as lovers of God and lovers of Christ, through perfect endurance become a boast of the Lord and a reproach to the devil, like the righteous Job.

Question. With what humility ought one to accept service from a brother?

Answer. As a slave from a master, and with such humility as the apostle Peter showed when the Lord served him; in his case we are also taught the danger to those who do not accept the service.

Question. What kind of love ought we to have for one another?

Answer. Such as the Lord showed and taught, when he said: “Love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” And if one must lay down even one's life, how much more is it necessary to show eagerness in particular things, not for human duties, but with the aim of pleasing God, for what benefits each one?

Question. In what way can one achieve love toward one's neighbour?

Answer. First, by fearing the judgment on those who transgress the commandment of the Lord himself, who said, “He who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him”; then by laying claim to eternal life, for “his commandment is eternal life”; and the first and great commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” and the second is like it, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”; and by desiring to be made like the Lord, who said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” And further, from reflections such as these: if our brother is a benefactor, we owe him love even by human standards, the love that even the Greeks keep, as the Lord shows in the Gospel, saying, “And if you love those who love you, what thanks is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them”; but if he does us harm, then too we ought to love him, not only because of the commandment, but as a benefactor in greater things, if indeed we believe the Lord, who said: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say every evil word against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

Question. What is the meaning of “Do not judge, and you will not be judged”?

Answer. Since the Lord at one time says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged,” and at another commands us to judge with righteous judgment, we are not forbidden to judge altogether, but are taught a distinction in judging. The Apostle has clearly handed down to us in what matters we should judge and in what not. In matters that lie within each one's own authority and are not laid down by Scripture, he says, “But why do you judge your brother?” and again, “Let us not judge one another any longer.” But in matters displeasing to God, he condemns those who do not judge and himself pronounces his own judgment, saying: “For I, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though present, him who has done this thing: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together with my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” So if something lies within our own authority, or is often uncertain, we must not judge our brother over it, according to what the Apostle said about things unknown: “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will also bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts.” But to vindicate the judgments of God is an unavoidable necessity, so that the one who keeps silent may not share in God's wrath; unless someone, doing the same as the one accused, has no boldness to judge his brother, hearing the Lord say: “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

Question. How may one know whether he is moved by zeal for God against a brother who sins, or is angry?

Answer. If at every sin he experiences what is written, “Your zeal has consumed me, because my enemies forgot your words,” the zeal for God is plain. But here too there is need of skilful management for the building up of faith. If this disposition is not already present in the soul and moving it, the movement becomes uneven, and in nothing is the aim of godliness preserved.

Question. With what disposition must one obey one who urges him on to the work of the commandment?

Answer. With the disposition with which a child gripped by hunger obeys the nurse who calls it to its food; and with which every man who clings to life obeys the one who bestows what is needed for life; or rather much more, inasmuch as eternal life is more precious than the present one. “For the commandment of God,” says the Lord, “is eternal life.” And what eating is in the case of bread, doing is in the case of the commandment, since the Lord himself again said: “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me.”

Question. What sort of soul ought that to be which has been counted worthy to be taken up into the work of God?

Answer. Such as that of him who said, “Who am I, my Lord, O Lord, and what is my house, that you have loved me?”, fulfilling what is written: “Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for the share of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.”

Question. With what disposition should one receive a cloak or shoe, whatever it may be?

Answer. If it is too small or too large for his size, let him make his need known with fitting gentleness. But if he quarrels over its cheapness, or because it is not new, let him remember the Lord, who says, “Worthy,” not simply everyone, but “the workman is of his food.” And let him examine himself whether he has done anything worthy of the Lord's commands or promises; and then he will not seek something else, but will be anxious about what has been given, as one receiving beyond his deserts. For what was said about food must be held as a rule for everything that serves the body's need.

Question. If a younger brother is ordered to teach something to one older in age, how shall he conduct himself toward him?

Answer. As fulfilling a service at the command of God the Master: fearing lest he fall under the judgment of him who said, “Cursed is everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently”; and guarding himself lest, puffed up, he fall into the judgment of the devil.

Question. Whether one should regard equally the one who does more good and the one who does less.

Answer. What the Lord laid down about the forgiveness of sins when he said, “Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, he loves little,” and what the Apostle ordained concerning elders, saying, “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in word and teaching,” I consider it fitting to keep in the case of all such people.

Question. And if the lesser one is grieved when the more devout is preferred, how shall we regard him?

Answer. Such a one is plainly condemned for wickedness by the parable in the Gospel, in which the Lord says to those who were grieved that some were honoured equally with them: “Is your eye evil because I am good?” And God's judgment on this and such things is plain, through the Prophet, who says: “The evildoer is set at nothing before him, but he honours those who fear the Lord.”

Question. With what fear, or what full assurance, or what disposition should we partake of the body and blood of Christ?

Answer. The Apostle teaches us the fear, saying: “He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself.” The full assurance is produced by faith in the words of the Lord, who said, “This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me”; and by the testimony of John, who first related the glory of the Word and then went on to the manner of the incarnation, saying, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth”; and by the Apostle, who wrote: “Being in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” When, then, the soul, believing these words and others like them and so many more, learns the greatness of the glory and marvels at the surpassing humility and obedience, that one so great obeyed the Father unto death for our life, I think it achieves the disposition of love, both toward God and the Father, “who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all,” and toward his only-begotten Son, who obeyed unto death for our redemption and salvation. And thus it can heed the Apostle, who sets out, as it were, a standard of good conscience in these matters for those who are sound, when he says: “For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge this: that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.” Such a disposition and preparation ought he to have who partakes of the bread [and the cup].

Question. Whether there should be any talking during the hour of psalmody in the house.

Answer. There should not, apart from those entrusted with the care and oversight of good order and with the management of the works, and this only by necessity of a pressing need; and not even then without circumspection, but with regard to the place and good order, to dignity and to giving no offence. For all the others silence is necessary. For if at the time of discourse, even among those appointed to the word of teaching, the first is commanded to be silent if something is revealed to another, how much more is silence necessary for the many at the time of psalmody?

Question. How can one do the Lord's commandments from the heart and with desire?

Answer. By nature the experience of what is pleasant and beneficial, and the very expectation of such a thing, produces in the soul a disposition and desire for it. If, then, someone hates and abhors unrighteousness, and is cleansed of every sin, from which, as the body from sickness suffers loss of appetite and distaste for food, so the soul suffers sluggishness and sloth toward the ordinances of God; and if he is fully assured that God's commandment is eternal life, and that all that is promised to those who keep it is true, then he achieves the disposition of him who said: “The judgments of the Lord are true, righteous altogether; more to be desired than gold and much precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. For your servant keeps them; in keeping them there is great reward.”

Question. How is one who loves his brother according to the Lord's commandment shown, and how is one who does not so love him exposed?

Answer. These two are the special marks of love: to grieve and be anxious over what harms the one loved, and to rejoice and strive for his benefit. Blessed, then, is he who mourns over one who sins, whose danger is fearful, and rejoices over one who does right, whose gain is beyond compare, as it is written. And Paul the apostle bears witness, saying: “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it,” wholly by the principle, of course, of love in Christ; “and if one member is honoured,” with the aim, plainly, of pleasing God, “all the members rejoice with it.” But one who is not so disposed toward his brother plainly does not love him.

Question. Who are the enemies we have been commanded to love? And how shall we love our enemies: only by benefits toward them, or also in our very disposition? And is this possible?

Answer. The mark of an enemy is to harm and to plot. Everyone, then, who harms anyone in any way might be called an enemy, but especially one who sins. For as far as lies in him he harms in various ways and plots against the one who lives with him or meets him. And since man consists of body and soul, let us love such people in the soul by reproving them, admonishing them, and leading them by every means toward turning back; and in the body by doing them good when they lack what is necessary for life. That love lies in the disposition is plain to all. And the Lord showed and taught that it is possible, displaying the love of the Father and his own in obedience unto death for enemies, not for friends, as the Apostle testifies, saying: “But God shows his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And he exhorts us to this very thing, saying: “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.” And the good and just One would not have commanded it unless he had granted that it be possible; which he has also shown to be laid up in nature by necessity. Even the wild beasts by nature love their benefactors. And what friend does us as much good as our enemies do? For they procure for us the blessing of the Lord, who said: “Blessed are you when they persecute you, and revile you, and say every evil word against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

Question. How ought the strong to bear the weaknesses of those who are not strong?

Answer. If bearing means taking away and healing, according to what is written, “He himself took our weaknesses and bore our diseases,” not by receiving them into himself but by healing those who suffered them, then here too the manner and principle of repentance will apply, by which those who are not strong will be healed through the care of the stronger.

Question. What is the meaning of “Bear one another's burdens”? And what law shall we fulfil by doing this?

Answer. It is the same as what was said before. For sin is heavy, dragging the soul down to the depths of Hades; and we take it away from one another and remove it by leading sinners to turn back. To use “bear” for “take away” is customary among the local people too, as I have often heard myself from many. And we shall fulfil the law of Christ, who said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” and who laid down for us: “If your brother sins, go, reprove him. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”

Question. How can anyone without love gain faith so great as to move mountains, or give all his possessions to the poor, or hand over his body to be burned?

Answer. If we remember the Lord, who said, “For they do it to be seen by men,” and his answer to those who said, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” (to whom he says, “I do not know where you are from”), not because they lied, but because they abused God's grace for their own wishes, which is alien to love for God, we can see what has been said without difficulty. That even one who is unworthy should receive a gift or grace of God is nothing strange; for God, in a time of kindness and patience, makes his sun rise on the evil and the good. And often it is also for the benefit either of the one who receives the gift himself, if perhaps, put to shame by God's kindness, he is moved to take care to please him, or of others, according to what was said by the Apostle: “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will”; to which he adds a little later: “Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.”

Question. With what disposition and attention ought we to listen to what is read to us during the meal?

Answer. With more delight than that with which we eat and drink, so that the mind may be shown not to be distracted toward the pleasures of the body, but to delight more in the words of the Lord, after the disposition of him who said: “And sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”

Question. If there are brotherhoods near one another, and one is poor while the other is rather unwilling to share, how should the poor one be disposed toward the one that does not share?

Answer. How can those who have been taught in the love of Christ to lay down even their life for one another be sparing of bodily things? It is as if they had forgotten him who said, “I was hungry, and you gave me no food,” and so on. But if this happens, the poor must be patient, with full assurance of the consolation in the age to come, imitating Lazarus.

Question. By what fruits ought one to be tested who reproves with compassion a brother who sins?

Answer. First, by the special marks of compassion, according to what was said by the Apostle: “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it”; and, “Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” Then, if he is equally contrite over every sin, and grieves and mourns equally over all who sin, both those who sin against him and those who sin against another; and if in reproving he does not corrupt the manner handed down by the Lord.

Question. If it happens that some living in a brotherhood disagree with one another, is it without danger to go along with such people for the sake of love?

Answer. Since the Lord said, “Grant, Father, that as I and you are one, so they too may be one in us,” and the Apostle wrote, “Of one soul, of one mind,” and Acts relate that the heart and soul of those who believed was one, those who disagree are strangers to what has been said. And love according to reason keeps the saying, “He who loves disciplines diligently”; but love not according to reason, whatever it may be, is reprobate, since the Lord said, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

Question. How can one, both when he exhorts and when he reproves, not only take care to speak with skill, but also keep the disposition he owes both toward God and toward those to whom he speaks?

Answer. If one remembers the Apostle, who said, “Let a man so regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” he does not manage some knowledge of his own on his own authority, but fulfils as a service of God, in caring for souls redeemed by the blood of Christ, with fear and trembling toward God, after him who said, “So we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts”; and with a disposition of tenderness toward the hearers, doing what is said: “As a nurse cherishes her own children, so, longing for you, we were well pleased to share with you not only the Gospel of God but also our own souls.”

Question. If someone, in giving a discourse, rejoices to see the hearers moved by what is said, how will he know whether he rejoices from a good disposition or from some passion of his own?

Answer. If he places his joy in the praises alone, he is plainly moved by a passion of his own. But if, on the spot, recognizing the understanding with which those who praise have listened, he is glad as at something that sows a hope of their compliance, and later, inquiring into the benefit, either rejoices at finding in them the good deeds that should follow the praises, or grieves on seeing that those who praised have gained nothing, then let him give thanks to God that he has been counted worthy to be moved as a lover of God and of the brothers, not seeking his own glory, but the glory of God and the building up of the brothers.

Question. Since we are taught to have such love as to lay down even our life for our friends, we need to learn for what sort of friends we must choose to do this.

Answer. The disposition, or the manner of this good deed, is likely to differ; for often the things that must be accepted on behalf of sinners are different from those that must be striven for on behalf of the righteous. But to show love even unto death, both for the righteous and for sinners, without distinction, is what we have been taught. “For God shows his own love for us,” it says, “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And to the saints the Apostle says: “As a nurse cherishes her own children, so, longing for you, we were well pleased to share with you not only the Gospel of God but also our own souls, because you had become dear to us.”

Question. Whether each one should receive anything from his relatives according to the flesh.

Answer. It is necessary for the relatives to hand over what is due to those who come to the Lord, and to keep back nothing, so that they may not fall under the judgment of sacrilege. But for these things to be spent in the sight of those to whom they seemed to belong often becomes, for those very people, an occasion of elation, and for the poor among those who have come to the same life a cause of grief; so that what happens is the very thing for which the Corinthians are reproached by the Apostle, who said, “You shame those who have nothing.” Therefore, if the one entrusted with the care of the churches in each place is faithful and able to manage prudently, let it be brought to him, in imitation of those in Acts, who brought it and laid it at the apostles' feet. And since the management of such things is not for all, but only for those appointed to it after testing, he will also arrange what is given by such people as he judges best.

Question. How should we regard those who were once of our household, or our kin, when they come to us?

Answer. As the Lord showed and taught when it was announced to him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see you”: he answered them rather reprovingly, saying, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and [mother].”

Question. And if they even entreat us, wishing to take us off to their homes, should we put up with them?

Answer. If it is for the building up of faith, let one who is able to go in that way be sent after testing. But if it is for a human duty, let him hear the Lord, who says to the man who said, “Let me go and say farewell to those at my home”: “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” And if such is the judgment on one who wished only to say farewell once, what should be said of this?

Question. Whether we should have pity on our relatives according to the flesh, desiring their salvation.

Answer. One who has been born of the Spirit, according to the Lord's word, and has received power to become a child of God, is ashamed of kinship according to the flesh, and recognizes as his own those who belong to the household of faith, to whom the Lord bears witness, saying: “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” And let him have pity on all who are far from the Lord, and on his kin according to the flesh as on all. But if someone, being more attached to them, thinks he has the Apostle as an advocate of his own passion, when he says, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,” let such a one learn from what follows that it is not kinship according to the flesh that the Apostle honours, but Israel and God's special gifts to it; not because the Israelites were his kin, but because his kin according to the flesh were Israelites, and because they had been counted worthy of so many and such great things from God. Since theirs was the adoption and the glory, theirs the giving of the law and the worship; since to them belonged the covenants and the promises, and theirs were the fathers; since from them is the Christ according to the flesh, he values their salvation so highly, looking not to kinship but to the Lord's becoming man for their sake, who said: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house [of Israel].”

Question. Who is the meek man?

Answer. One who is unchangeable in his judgments about what is to be striven for so as to please God.

Question. What is godly grief, and what is the grief of the world?

Answer. It is godly grief when someone is grieved because a commandment of God has been disregarded, according to what is written: “Despondency took hold of me because of the sinners who forsake your law”; and it is the grief of the world when what grieves is something human and worthy of the world.

Question. What is joy in the Lord, and in doing what ought we to rejoice?

Answer. To rejoice in what is done according to the Lord's commandment, to the glory of God, is joy in the Lord. When, then, we do the Lord's commandments, or suffer anything for the Lord's name, we ought to rejoice and to rejoice with one another.

Question. What mourning shall we take up, so as to be counted worthy of the blessing?

Answer. This question is included in godly grief: when we mourn over sins committed, either because of the dishonour to God, since through transgression of the law one dishonours God, or because of those in danger in sin. “For the soul that sins,” it says, “it shall die”; imitating him who said, “And I shall mourn over many of those who have sinned before.”

Question. How does one do all things to the glory of God?

Answer. When he does all things for God's sake, according to God's commandment, and in nothing looks around for the praises of men; but everywhere remembers the Lord, who said: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Question. How does one eat and drink to the glory of God?

Answer. In remembrance of the Benefactor, and in such a disposition of soul, attested by the bearing of the body, that he eats not as one without care but as one who has God as overseer; and in the aim of partaking, when he eats not as a slave of the belly for pleasure, but as God's workman, for strength in the works done according to Christ's commandment.

Question. How does the right hand act so that the left hand does not know?

Answer. When the mind, with an undistracted and intent desire to please God, is wholly anxious not to fall short of what is fitting, and contends lawfully. Then it takes no thought of anything, nor of any other member, except only of what serves the matter in hand; as a craftsman in each work looks only at the tool that serves him.

Question. What is humility, and how shall we achieve it?

Answer. Humility is to count all others better than oneself, according to the Apostle's definition. One achieves it, first, if he remembers the commandment of the Lord, who said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (which he both showed and taught in many places and in many ways), and believes him who promised, “He who humbles himself will be exalted”; then, if steadily and without interruption he practises and exercises himself in the habits of humility in every matter. For only thus, by continual practice, will he be able to take on the settled habit of humility, as usually happens with the crafts too. And the same way of achieving it holds for every virtue according to the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Question. How might one become eager even to risk dangers for the Lord's commandment?

Answer. First, by being reminded that the Lord himself obeyed the Father for us unto death; then, by being fully assured of the power of the commandment, that it is eternal life, as it is written; and then, by believing the Lord, who said: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it.”

Question. How can those who have laboured long in the work of God benefit those who have just come?

Answer. If they are strong in body, by showing unflagging zeal and offering themselves as a pattern of every good deed. If they are weak, by such a state of soul that the full assurance of God's oversight and of the Lord's presence shows in their face and in every movement; and in the marks of love listed by the Apostle, who said: “Love is patient, is kind; love does not envy, does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not reckon evil; does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” For all these can be achieved even in a weak body.

Question. How does one achieve freedom from distraction in prayer?

Answer. By being fully assured that God is before his eyes. For if someone who sees a ruler or a superior and converses with him keeps his gaze undistracted, how much more will one who prays to God keep his mind undistracted from him who tries hearts and reins, fulfilling what is written: “Lifting up holy hands, without anger and disputing.”

Question. Whether it is possible to achieve freedom from distraction in everything and at all times, and how one achieves it.

Answer. That it is possible he showed who said, “My eyes are ever toward the Lord”; and, “I set the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved.” How it is possible has been said before: by giving the soul no time for idleness from the thought of God, of his works and gifts, and from [thanksgiving] for all …

Question. Of the good deeds done according to the Lord's commandment, is there one measure in all, or does one have more and another less?

Answer. That there is not one measure in all, but one is both entrusted with and shows more, another less, is clear from the Lord's words, when at one time he says, “But he who was sown on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, one a hundredfold, another sixty, another thirty” (which is also found in the case of those who received the minas); and at another time, “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one.”

Question. How is one counted worthy to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit?

Answer. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught it, saying: “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to remain with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.” So as long as we do not keep all the Lord's commandments, and are not such that he can testify of us, “You are not of this world,” let us not expect to be counted worthy of the Holy Spirit.

Question. Who are the poor in spirit?

Answer. Since the Lord says at one time, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” and at another, “The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and remind you of what I said to you; for he will not speak,” he says, “on his own, but whatever he hears from me, that he will speak,” those are the poor in spirit who have become poor for no other reason than because of the teaching of the Lord, who said: “Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor.” And if someone, accepting a poverty that has befallen him in whatever way, steers it toward the will of God, as Lazarus did, neither is he …

Question. Since the Lord commands us not to be anxious about what we shall eat or drink or put on, how far does the commandment extend, and how is it achieved?

Answer. The commandment extends unto death, as every commandment does; for the Lord too obeyed unto death. And it is achieved by trust in God. For the Lord, having forbidden anxiety, joins the promise to it, saying: “For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Such was the Apostle, who said: “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,” dying daily in the judgment and readiness of his soul, but preserved by God's good pleasure. That is why he said boldly: “As dying, and behold, we live.” And what helps such a resolve is a burning zeal and insatiable desire for the Lord's commandments; one who is gripped by it has no leisure even to be distracted about the needs of the body.

Question. If, then, we must not even be anxious about what is necessary for life, and there is another command of the Lord, who said, “Do not work for the food that perishes,” is working superfluous?

Answer. The Lord himself made his command clear in each passage. There, having forbidden seeking what is needed for life, saying, “Do not seek what you will eat or what you will drink; for all the nations of the world seek all these things,” he commanded, saying, “But seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness”; and how one must seek it he showed through those counted worthy of it. Here, having forbidden working for the food that perishes, he taught us to work for the food that endures to eternal life, which he again revealed in another place, saying: “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me.” And if it is the will of God to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and the rest, it is altogether necessary to imitate the Apostle, who says, “In all things I showed you that by labouring like this we must help the weak,” and to obey him when he teaches: “Let him rather labour, working with his own hands what is good, so that he may have something to give to him who has need.” Since these things have thus been handed down to us by the Lord through the Gospel and the Apostle, it is plain that to be anxious or to work for one's own sake is altogether forbidden; but according to the Lord's commandment we must be anxious and work the more zealously for our neighbour's need, especially since the Lord takes upon himself the zeal shown toward those devoted to him, and promises the kingdom of heaven for it.

Question. Whether it is good to practise complete silence.

Answer. The good of silence is tested by time and person, as we are taught by the God-inspired Scripture. By time, as when it says, “He who understands will keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time”; and again, “I set a guard on my mouth, when the sinner stood against me.” By person, as when the Apostle writes, “If something is revealed to another who sits by, let the first be silent”; and again, “Let your women keep silent in the churches.” And there are times when complete silence is necessary for those who have less control over the tongue and cannot keep the saying, “Let no rotten word proceed out of your mouth, but only such as is good for the building up of faith,” until in this silence their passion of rashness in words is healed, and they are able to learn at leisure when, what, and how one should speak, so that, as it is written, it “may give grace to those who hear.”

Question. How can we come to fear the judgments of God?

Answer. By nature, the expectation of anything dreadful produces fear. So we fear wild beasts and rulers, expecting to experience some evil from them. If, then, someone believes that the Lord's threats are true, and expects to experience them, terrible and most dreadful as they are, he fears the judgments of God.

Question. What is the seemly apparel handed down by the Apostle?

Answer. A use that is dignified with regard to its proper purpose, with an eye to time, place, person, and need. For reason does not approve the same coverings in winter and in summer, nor the same dress for one who works and one who rests, for one who serves and one who is served, for a soldier and a civilian, or for a man and a woman.

Question. What is the measure of love for God?

Answer. That the soul always stretch out beyond its strength toward the will of God, with the aim and desire of his glory.

Question. How is love for God achieved?

Answer. If we are disposed with good conscience and gratitude toward his benefits, which is found even in irrational creatures. For we see dogs loving the one who only gives them bread; and we learn this too from what was said reproachfully through Isaiah the prophet: “I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me.” For as love toward the one who feeds them arises of itself in the ox and the donkey from his benefits, so we too, if we receive his benefits with feeling and gratitude, how shall we not love God, the benefactor of so many and such great things, since such a disposition arises in the sound soul naturally, so to speak, and untaught?

Question. What are the marks of love for God?

Answer. The Lord himself taught us, saying: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Question. How do kindness and goodness differ from each other?

Answer. Since David says at one time, “The Lord is kind to all,” and, “Kind is the man who has pity and lends,” and at another, “Do good, O Lord, to the good,” and Jeremiah says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him,” I think kindness is broader, for the benefit of those who need it in any way at all; while goodness is more restricted, and in its benefits makes use of the principles of righteousness.

Question. Who is the peacemaker blessed by the Lord?

Answer. One who works together with the Lord, according to the Apostle, who said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God”; and again, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.” For peace of any other kind was disowned by the Lord, who said: “My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”

Question. In what must we turn and become like little children?

Answer. The Gospel passage itself teaches us, by showing the occasion on which this was said: so as not to seek pre-eminence, but to recognize the equal honour of our nature and to cherish equality of honour with those who seem to be inferior in some things. For such are children toward one another, those at least not yet accustomed to the wickedness of those they live among.

Question. How shall we receive the kingdom of God as a little child?

Answer. If we become toward the Lord's teaching what a child is in its lessons: not contradicting or arguing with its teachers, but receiving the instruction faithfully and obediently.

Question. What understanding ought we to ask of God, or how can we be counted worthy of it?

Answer. We learn what understanding is from God himself through the prophet, who says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong man boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this, in understanding and knowing the Lord”; and through the Apostle, who said: “But understanding what the will of the Lord is.” And we can be counted worthy of it if we do what is written, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and if we believe that every word of God is true; for “if you do not believe,” it says, “neither will you understand.”

Question. If we receive a benefit from someone, how can we render to the Lord the thanksgiving we owe, pure and whole, and also fulfil with understanding what we owe to the benefactor, neither falling short of nor exceeding the measure?

Answer. If we are fully assured that God is the author and perfecter of every good, and recognize the one who ministered it as a servant of God's benefit.

Question. Whether everyone who wishes should be allowed to meet with the sisters; or who, and when, and how one shall meet with the sisters.

Answer. It has been said about these things in the longer answers that not even with a man should each man meet simply and at random, on his own authority, but, after testing, one who is able to benefit and to be benefited; much less with a woman. And if someone remembers the Lord, who said, “For every idle word that men speak they will give account of it on the day of judgment,” he fears such a judgment in every matter, and obeys the Apostle, who said, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” and elsewhere, “Let all things be done for building up,” and will not allow himself to do anything idly and unprofitably. As for “who, and when, and how”: so that time, place, and person may be tested, through which there will be no suspicion of anything bad, offence to all will be avoided, and the meeting will serve the building up of faith. But reason does not allow even one person to meet with one. “For two are better than one,” it says, and at the same time more trustworthy; “but woe to him who is alone, for if he falls, there is no one to lift him up.”

Question. Since the Lord teaches us to pray not to enter into temptation, should we pray not to fall into bodily pains? And if someone does fall into them, how should he come through it?

Answer. He did not distinguish the kind of temptation, but commanded generally: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” But when we have been brought into it, we must ask of the Lord, together with the temptation, the way of escape, that we may be able to bear it, so that this may be achieved in us: “But he who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Question. Who is the adversary of each of us, and how shall we be well-disposed toward him?

Answer. Here the Lord pointedly calls “adversary” the one who tries to take away something that belongs to us. And we are well-disposed toward him if we keep the command of the Lord, who said, “To him who wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well,” and likewise in every such matter.

Question. Since the Lord said, “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to men to be fasting,” what shall one do who wishes to fast for some reason pleasing to God, as the saints are often found to have done, since it becomes apparent even though he does not wish it?

Answer. This command is addressed to those who make a practice of doing God's commandment in order to be seen by men, so that they may heal the passion of man-pleasing. For that the Lord's commandment, when done to the glory of God, is by nature unsuited to being hidden among those who love God, the Lord showed when he said: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do they light a lamp and put it under the measure,” and so on.

Question. Whether even now some work from the first hour and others from the eleventh, and who these are.

Answer. This is perhaps very well known to all from what is related in the God-inspired Scripture: that there are many who, according to the Apostle's testimony, learn the sacred writings from infancy; and many who, like Cornelius, use their natural impulses soundly but are slow in coming to perfection in knowledge, because of the lack of teachers. “For how shall they believe,” it says, “if they do not hear?” If, then, there happen to be some who, like Cornelius, are busied with nothing evil, but in desire for perfection genuinely show such good things as are possible and have come to their knowledge, to them God grants what he granted to Cornelius, not reckoning against them as a charge the past time of idleness, since, as I said, it did not come about through their own fault; but being satisfied with their desire, made plain by what they strove for at each time, and at the end achieved with greater care.

Question. Since the Lord said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” how can we be counted worthy of this?

Answer. Those gathered together in someone's name ought certainly to know the aim of the one who gathered them, and to fit themselves to it, so that they may find the favour of being well-pleasing and not fall under the judgment of wickedness or negligence. For as those called by someone, if the caller's aim is to reap, prepare themselves for that, and if his aim is to build, make ready for building, so we who have been called by the Lord ought to remember the Apostle, who says: “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.” And the Lord shows us the whole more clearly through his promise to a single person, saying: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” As, then, the abode is made with him through the keeping of the commandments, so also among the two or three …

Question. Since the Apostle says, “Being reviled, we bless; being slandered, we exhort,” how ought one who is reviled to bless, or what is one who is slandered to exhort?

Answer. In general I think the Apostle here teaches us, from his own example, to show forbearance toward all and to repay those who do evil with good things; so that this happens not only in the case of one who reviles, but also of everyone who does evil, fulfilling what is said: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” And Scripture is accustomed to use “exhort” not in the usual sense, but for bringing the heart to full assurance of the truth, as in “Exhort my people, says God.” And the Apostle says: “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established; that is, that we may be encouraged together among you through the faith we share, both yours and mine”; and elsewhere: “But God, who comforts the lowly, comforted us by the coming of Titus.”

Question. Whether each one should submit to others too what he thinks, or keep to himself what he has done, in the full assurance that it pleases God.

Answer. Remembering God's sentence, spoken through the prophet, “Woe to those who are wise in themselves, and knowing in their own sight,” and the Apostle, who says, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established; that is, that we may be encouraged together among you through the faith we share, both yours and mine,” we reckon it necessary to submit our thoughts to those of one soul with us who have given proof of faith and understanding, so that either what has gone astray may be corrected or what is exact may be confirmed, and we may escape the judgment pronounced against those who are wise in their own eyes.

Question. Whether in every matter one must satisfy the wish of those who take offense, or whether there are some things in which one should take no account of them, even if some take offense.

Answer. We have shown the difference in these matters clearly when we were asked about it in its proper place, and we have handed down the exact teaching about it as far as we were able.

Question. Whether forbidden deeds should be confessed openly to everyone, or to some; and to whom.

Answer. The confession of sins follows the same principle as the showing of bodily illnesses. Just as people do not disclose the illnesses of the body to everyone, nor to anyone they happen on, but to those experienced in treating them, so too the confession of sins ought to be made before those able to heal, as it is written, “You who are strong, bear the weaknesses of those without strength”; that is, take them away by your care.

Question. What is worship, and what is reasonable worship?

Answer. Worship, as I reckon, is intent, continual, and undistracted service of the one worshipped. The difference between reasonable and unreasoning worship the Apostle sets before us, saying at one time, “You know that when you were Gentiles you were led away to dumb idols, however you were led,” and at another, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship.” For the one who is led away, however he is led, offers unreasoning worship, since he is moved, not by his own impulse and purpose under the guidance of reason, but by the power of the one who leads him, and is carried wherever he is led, even against his will. But the one who, with sound reason and good counsel, with much care, always and everywhere looks to what is pleasing to God and achieves it, fulfils the commandment of reasonable worship, according to the one who said, “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths”; and again, “And your ordinances are my counsel.”

Question. If a brother does evil to me and is hostile to me, or at times even a priest, whether I am permitted to keep, in his case too, the commandments given me about an enemy.

Answer. The Lord, in the commandments about enemies, did not hint at any difference either of enemy or of enmity; rather, he laid it down that the same sin is heavier in those higher in rank, saying to them, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” So especially with such people, and with those who seem more distinguished, there is need of zeal and attention, so that we may give them the care we owe them, whether by exhortation or by reproof, with fitting patience; and, observing everything else in their case according to the Lord’s commandment, we may keep ourselves blameless in this respect too.

Question. If someone who has been wronged by another tells no one, by reason of patience and forbearance, but thinks to leave the judgment to God, does he act according to the Lord?

Answer. Since the Lord said at one time, “Forgive, if you have anything against anyone,” and at another, “If your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen, take with you one or two more, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector,” one must show the fruit of patience by offering to God, from a true disposition, prayer for the one who did the wrong, saying, “Lord, do not hold this sin against him,” so that he may not become liable to judgment as one angry with his brother; and it is fitting to give the wrongdoer exhortation and reproof, so that he may set him too free from the wrath that comes upon the sons of disobedience. But if he neglects this and keeps quiet, supposedly by reason of his own patience, he commits a double sin: because he himself transgresses the commandment that says, “You shall surely reprove your neighbour, and you shall not incur sin because of him,” and becomes a partner of the sinner through his silence; and because he lets one who might perhaps have been gained through reproof, as the Lord ordained, perish in his wickedness.

Question. If one of all the good deeds is lacking in someone, is he for that reason not saved?

Answer. Although there are many things in both the Old and the New Testament that can give us full assurance about this, I think the judgment on Peter alone is enough for the believer. After so many and such great good deeds, and such blessings and praises from the Lord, when he seemed to disobey in one thing only, and that neither from sloth nor from contempt, but from reverence and honour toward the Lord, for this alone he hears: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.”

Question. How does one proclaim the death of the Lord?

Answer. As the Lord taught, saying, “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.” And the Apostle showed it, confessing: “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” This we agreed to beforehand in baptism itself. “For all of us,” it says, “who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death”; to which he adds, explaining what it is to be baptized into the Lord's death: “Our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer serve sin”; and, being cleansed of all attachment to this life, we become worthy of the Apostle's testimony when he said: “For you died, and your life [is hidden with Christ in God].”

Question. Whether it is profitable to learn much from the Scriptures by heart.

Answer. Since there are two more general orders, those entrusted with leadership and those appointed to compliance and obedience, with different gifts, I reckon that the one entrusted with the leadership and care of the many ought to know and learn what concerns all, so that he may teach all the will of God, showing each what falls to him; while each of the others, remembering the Apostle, who said, “Not to think more highly than one ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each,” should zealously learn and do what falls to himself, busying himself with nothing more, so that he may be worthy of the Lord's word: “Come, good servant; you were faithful over a few things, [I will set] you over many.”

Question. How ought those who have been counted worthy to learn the four Gospels by heart to receive the grace?

Answer. Since the Lord declared that from him to whom they have entrusted much they will ask the more, they ought to fear and be zealous the more, as the Apostle taught, saying: “Working together with him, we exhort you also not to receive the grace of God in vain.” And this happens if we obey the Lord, who says: “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Question. What kind of soul is directed toward the will of God?

Answer. The one that has accepted the proposal of the Lord, who said: “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” For if someone has not first achieved denying himself and taking up the cross, he will find, as he goes on, many obstacles to following arising from himself.

Question. Whether it is possible to sing psalms, or read, or speak earnestly about the words of God unceasingly, with no interval at all, in view of the necessity that befalls some of the baser needs of the body.

Answer. The Apostle gives us the rule for this, saying: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” So one must rather take care for decency and good order according to time and place.

Question. What is the good treasure, and what the evil?

Answer. The mind set on every virtue in Christ to the glory of God is the good treasure; and the mind set on the wickedness of things forbidden by the Lord is the evil treasure. From these, according to the Lord's word, are brought forth, in the deeds and words proper to each, either evil things or good.

Question. In what sense is the gate called wide and the way broad that leads to destruction?

Answer. The Lord in his great love for mankind uses the names and words of familiar things to set forth the doctrines of truth. As, then, departure from a straight road on earth has much breadth, so, he says, one who departs from the way that leads to the kingdom of heaven finds himself in a great breadth of error. “Wide” and “broad” I reckon to be the same; for what is wide is also called broad by those educated outside. The room, that is, the place of error, is broad, and its end is destruction.

Question. How is the gate narrow and the way hard that leads to life, and how does one enter through it?

Answer. Here again “narrow” and “hard” do not signify different things, but “hard” expresses the intensity of the narrowness: the way is narrowed so far that the traveller is pressed, that is, hemmed in on both sides, every departure being dangerous, whether to the right or to the left, as on a bridge where the river flowing beneath receives on every side anyone who turns aside. That is why David says: “They have set stumbling blocks for me beside the path.” So one who has resolved to enter into life through the narrow and hard way must guard himself from every departure and turning aside from the Lord's commandments, fulfilling what is written: “Do not turn aside to the right or to the left.”

Question. What is the meaning of “In brotherly love be tenderly affectionate to one another”?

Answer. Tender affection might be called an intensifying of friendship in the burning desire and disposition of one who loves toward the one he loves. So that brotherly love may not be superficial, but heartfelt and burning, it is said: “In brotherly love be tenderly affectionate to one another.”

Question. What does the Apostle mean when he says, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your provocation,” though elsewhere he says, “Let all bitterness and rage and anger be removed from you”?

Answer. I think the Apostle here has handled his words in imitation of the Lord. For as in the Gospel the Lord first says, “It was said to those of old,” this, and then adds, “But I say to you,” that; so here too the Apostle, having first recalled what was said of old and to those of that time, “Be angry and do not sin,” adds a little later what is fitting for us from himself, saying: “Let all bitterness and rage and anger and clamour be removed from you.”

Question. What is the meaning of “Give place to wrath”?

Answer. Either not to resist the evil man, as it is written, but even to turn the other cheek to one who strikes you on the right cheek, and so on; or, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to the other.”

Question. Who is wise as the serpent and innocent as the dove?

Answer. Wise as the serpent is one who arranges his teaching with circumspection and consideration of what is possible and what will succeed toward the persuasion of the hearers; and innocent as the dove is one who does not even entertain the thought of retaliating against one who plots against him, but perseveres in doing good, according to the Apostle's command: “But you, do not grow weary in doing good.” For the Lord gave these commands to the disciples when sending them out to preach, where there was need both of wisdom to persuade and of forbearance toward those who plotted against them; so that, as the serpent there knew how to approach a more easily led person and to speak persuasively so as to draw her away from God and bring her under sin, so we too may choose person, manner, and time, and in every way arrange our words with judgment, so as to draw people away from sin and lead them back to God; and may achieve endurance in temptations to the end, as it is [written] …

Question. What is the meaning of “Love does not behave unbecomingly”?

Answer. It is equivalent to saying that it does not fall away from its own form. And the form of love is the marks of love listed by the Apostle in the same passage.

Question. Since Scripture says, “Do not boast, and do not speak lofty things,” and the Apostle at one time confesses, “What I say I do not say according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting,” and again, “I have become a fool in boasting,” and at another permits it, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord,” what is boasting in the Lord, and what is the forbidden boasting?

Answer. The Apostle's opposition to the passions, made out of necessity, is plain. For he says these things not to commend himself, but to bring down the audacity and elation of certain people's boastfulness. Boasting is in the Lord when someone attributes his good deeds not to himself but to the Lord, saying, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” The forbidden kind may be understood in two ways: either according to the saying, “The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul,” and, “Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty man?”; or according to the saying, “They do it to be seen by men,” through the very wish to be praised for what they do, as if boasting in what they do. Such people would also be sacrilegious, appropriating God's gifts and snatching for themselves the glory owed to God.

Question. If the Lord gives wisdom, and from his face come knowledge and understanding; and if through the Spirit to one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge: how does the Lord reproach the disciples, “Are you also still without understanding?”, and how does the Apostle blame some as without understanding?

Answer. If someone knows the goodness of God, who wills all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and has learned the care of the Holy Spirit in the distribution and working of God’s gifts, he recognizes that slowness of understanding comes, not from any reluctance in the Benefactor, but from the unbelief of those who receive the benefits. And the one without understanding is rightly reproached, like someone who shuts his eyes when the sun has risen … by his own will, so as to spend his time in darkness, and does not look up so as to be enlightened.

Question. What is the holy, and what is the just?

Answer. The holy, I reckon, is what is fitting and owed by those beneath to the one who is higher, according to the measure of his superiority; the just is what is rendered to each according to the worth of his deeds. In the case of the holy, there is only gratitude and the return of the finest things; in the case of the just, there is also the testing and requital of evils.

Question. How does one give what is holy to the dogs, or throw pearls before swine? And how does what follows come about: “lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you”?

Answer. The Apostle hands it down to us clearly in what he added to the words he spoke to the Jews: “You who boast in the law, you dishonor God by transgressing the law.” So the dishonor with which we dishonor the holy words of the Lord by transgression is what the Lord forbade here. From such transgression it comes about that those outside the faith both regard the Lord’s teachings as contemptible and, taking occasion from those very teachings, rise up against us more boldly, and, as it were, tear the transgressor with reproaches and refutations.

Question. How is it that the Lord at one time forbids carrying a purse and a bag on the way, and at another says, “But now let the one who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag; and let the one who has none sell his cloak and buy a sword”?

Answer. The Lord himself makes this clear, saying, “For this must still be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was counted among the lawless.’” For immediately after the prophecy about the sword was fulfilled, he says to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” So “But now let the one who has a purse take it” (or “will take it,” for so most of the copies have it) is not a command; rather, the Lord is foretelling, as a prophecy, that the apostles would forget his gifts and the law of the Lord and would even dare to take up a sword. That Scripture often uses the imperative form of speech instead of the prophetic is plain from many places, such as, “Let his sons become orphans,” and, “Let the devil stand at his right hand,” and the like.

Question. What is the daily bread that we have been taught to pray to be given us each day?

Answer. When the worker, remembering the Lord, who says, “Do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,” and the Apostle, who commands us to work so that we may have something to give to him who has need, works not for his own need but for the Lord's commandment (since “the workman is worthy of his food”), then he does not leave to himself the daily bread, that is, the bread that serves our being for this day's life, but makes petition to God about it; and having shown him the necessity of his want, he eats what is given him by the one appointed after testing to carry out each day the saying: “It was distributed to each as anyone had need.”

Question. What is the talent, and how shall we multiply it?

Answer. I reckon that the parable has been spoken about every gift of God, so that each one, whatever grace he is found to have from God, may multiply it by bringing it to the benefit and help of many. For no one is without a share in God's kindness …

Question. What is the table, on which the Lord says, “You ought to have put my money”?

Answer. Parables do not fulfil their meanings in every detail, but guide the mind toward the matter in question. As, then, it is fitting for money to be given to the bankers for gain (for they are, as it were, ones who make it productive), so it is necessary that one who has received any grace whatever share it with him who has need, or else do what the Apostle said about the word: “Commit these things to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” For this naturally happens not only with the word but with every matter: some have the ability, while others have received experience in management.

Question. Where was he commanded to go who heard, “Take what is yours and go”?

Answer. Perhaps where those set on the left were also commanded to go, who were charged with idleness in what is good. And everyone who envies his brother is worse than the idle man, since Scripture is accustomed in many places to place envy with murder.

Question. What is the wage that these too receive equally with the last?

Answer. Perhaps not being charged for the good deeds one has done, which is common to all who obey. For being crowned is proper to those who have fought the good fight lawfully, finished the course, and kept the faith in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. But the wage agreed on can also be the hundredfold which the Lord promised that those who leave anything of present things for his commandment's sake will receive in this present time; so that “Take what is yours” was said of this; but since those who thought they had laboured longer fell sick with the passion of envy against those who enjoyed equal things, they no longer inherit eternal life as well, but, receiving only the hundredfold now, are condemned in the age to come for their envy and hear, “Go.”

Question. Who are the chaff burned with unquenchable fire?

Answer. Those who are useful to those worthy of the kingdom of heaven, as the chaff is to the wheat, but do it without the disposition of love toward God and toward their neighbour, whether in spiritual gifts or in bodily benefits, and so leave themselves unperfected.

Question. Who is the one condemned by the Apostle, “Delighting in humility and worship” and so on?

Answer. I think what follows makes clear the matter under inquiry in the passage. For going on he speaks of severity to the body; such are the Manichaeans, and any who are like them.

Question. Who is fervent in spirit?

Answer. One who does the will of God with burning eagerness, insatiable desire, and unflagging zeal, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord, according to what is written: “In his commandments he will delight greatly.”

Question. Since the Apostle says at one time, “Do not be foolish,” and at another, “Do not be wise in your own opinion,” is it possible for one who is not foolish not to be wise in his own opinion?

Answer. Each command has its own definition. For to “Do not be foolish” he adds, “But understanding what the will of God is”; and to “Do not be wise in your own eyes” is added, “But fear the Lord and turn away from all evil.” So the foolish man is one who does not understand the will of the Lord; and the man wise in his own opinion is everyone who uses his own reasonings and does not follow the words of God by faith. If, then, someone wishes to be neither foolish nor wise in his own opinion, he must understand the will of the Lord by faith in him, and in the fear of God imitate the Apostle, who says: “Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

Question. Since the Lord promised, “All things whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive,” and again, “If two of you agree on earth about any matter they ask, it will be done for them,” how is it that even the saints asked for some things and did not receive them? As the Apostle said, “For this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me,” and did not receive his request; and so too Jeremiah the prophet, and Moses himself.

Answer. Since our Lord Jesus Christ said in prayer, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” and then added, “Yet not my will, but yours be done,” we must first know that we have not been permitted to ask for everything we wish, nor do we always know how to ask for what is profitable. “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.” So our requests must be made with much circumspection, according to the will of God; and when we are not heard, we must know that there is need either of perseverance or of intensity, according to the Lord's parable on the need to pray always and not lose heart, and according to what he said in another place, “Because of his persistence he will rise and give him as much as he needs”; or of correction and care, according to what was said by God through the prophet to certain people: “When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my face from you; and if you multiply your petition, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood. Wash, become clean,” and so on. And that even now the hands of many become and are full of blood, those who believe that judgment of God must not doubt, which he pronounced against one who was commanded to warn the people and kept silent: “The blood of the one who has sinned will be required at the hands of the watchman.” Being fully assured that this is true and inviolable, the Apostle said: “I am clean from now on from the blood of all; for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” And if the one who only kept silent is found guilty of the blood of those who sin, what could one say of those who cause others to stumble by what they do or say? Sometimes too the request is not granted because of the unworthiness of the one asking, as with David, who prayed to build a house for God and was prevented: he was not estranged from being well-pleasing to God, but neither was he judged worthy of that. Jeremiah, on the other hand, appears not to have been heard because of the wickedness of those for whom he prayed. And often, having let slip through negligence the time when we should have made the request, we find ourselves asking later out of season and in vain.

As for “For this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me,” we must know that the reason for afflictions, both outward and bodily, is manifold and various, God either bringing them or permitting them for some purpose better than relief from them. If, then, someone can recognize that he must be delivered from the affliction through prayer and petition, he is heard when he asks, like the two blind men in the Gospel, the ten lepers, and many others. But if someone does not recognize the reason for which he has fallen into the trial (for often the purpose of what is brought on him is to be achieved through endurance), and, when he ought to endure to the end, begs off the affliction, he is not heard, since he does not concur with the purpose of God's love for mankind.

As for “If two of you agree,” the passage itself makes it clear. For it speaks of one who reproves the sinner and of the one reproved. Since God does not desire the death of the sinner so much as that he turn and live, if the one reproved is pierced in soul and comes to agree with the aim of the one who reproves, about any matter, that is, about any sin whatever for which they ask forgiveness, it will be given them by God who loves mankind. But if the one reproved does not agree with the one who reproves, there is no longer forgiveness but binding, according to what follows: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,” that judgment being fulfilled: “If the one reproved refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.”

Question. Since Scripture places poverty and want among the things praised, as in “Blessed are the poor,” and in “The Lord has heard the desire of the needy,” and again, “The poor and needy will praise your name,” what is the difference between poverty and want? And how does David speak truly in saying, “But I am poor and needy”?

Answer. Remembering the Apostle, who said of the Lord, “That for our sakes he became poor, though he was rich,” I reckon that the poor man is one who has come down from wealth to want, and the needy man one who from the beginning was in want and has steered such a circumstance in a way pleasing to the Lord. And David confesses that he is poor and needy, perhaps saying this too in the person of the Lord, who is called poor according to “Who for our sakes became poor, though he was rich,” and needy inasmuch as according to the flesh he was called the son not of some rich man but of a carpenter. Or perhaps too because he knew, like Job, not to hoard his own possessions nor to attend to his wealth as his own, but to manage everything according to the will of the Lord.

Question. What does the Lord mean to teach by the examples to which he adds, “So therefore everyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”? For if one who wishes to build a tower, or to engage another king, must make preparation either for the building or for the war, but if he is not able, may either not lay the foundation at all or ask for terms of peace, must one who wishes to become the Lord's disciple likewise renounce all; but if he finds himself ill-disposed toward this, may he not even begin to be a disciple of the Lord?

Answer. The Lord's aim in these examples is not to give leave to become his disciple or not, but to show the impossibility of pleasing God amid what distracts the soul; in which the soul is also in danger, becoming an easy prey to the wiles of the devil, and is shown up as deserving mockery and laughter because of the incompleteness of what it seemed to strive for. The Prophet, praying not to suffer this, said: “Lest my enemies rejoice over me; and when my feet slipped they boasted against me.”

Question. Since the Apostle says, “That you may be sincere,” and again, “But as of sincerity,” what is sincerity?

Answer. I reckon sincerity to be what is unmixed and perfectly purified from everything contrary, gathered together and ordered to godliness alone; and not only that, but also to what is exactly required at each time and in each matter toward its aim, so that one appointed to something is not distracted even toward good deeds akin to it. The first is shown by the sequence itself: for to “But as of sincerity” he adds, “As from God, before God, we speak in Christ.” The second is shown by “Not to think more highly than one ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith,” and by what follows.

Question. Was the saying, “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift,” spoken to the priests only, or to all? And how does each of us offer a gift on the altar?

Answer. It would be fitting to take this especially and primarily of priests; but since it is written, “But you shall be called priests of the Lord, ministers of God, all of you,” and, “A sacrifice of praise will glorify me,” and again, “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,” and the Apostle says, “To present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service,” each of these is common to all; and it is necessary for each of us to achieve this.

Question. What is the salt which the Lord commanded us to have, saying, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another”? And the Apostle says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.”

Answer. Here too the meaning is plain from what is joined to each saying. In the Lord's words we are taught to give no occasion for dissolution and separation from one another, but always to be kept together in the bond of peace for the unity of the Spirit. In the Apostle's, one who remembers him who said, “Will bread be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in empty words?” will be taught to manage his words for the building up of faith, “that it may give grace to those who hear,” using a fitting time and seemly order, so that the hearers may become more ready to obey.

Question. If one will be beaten with many blows and another with few, how do some say that there is no end to punishment?

Answer. What seems to be said ambiguously and obscurely in some places of the God-inspired Scripture is made clear by what is acknowledged in other places. Since, then, the Lord at one time declares that “these will go away into eternal punishment,” and at another sends some “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” and elsewhere names “the hell of fire” and adds, “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched,” and long before, through the prophet, had said of some that “their worm will not die,” though these things stand written, this too is one of the devil's wiles: that most people, as though forgetting so many and such great words and sentences of the Lord, prescribe for themselves an end of punishment, so as to venture the more boldly on sin. For if there will ever be an end of eternal punishment, eternal life too will certainly have an end. And if we do not accept thinking this of life, what reason is there to give an end to eternal punishment? For the addition of “eternal” stands equally with both: “For these will go away,” it says, “into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” These things being thus acknowledged, we must know that both “will be beaten with many blows” and “will be beaten with few” signify not an end but a difference of punishment. For if God is a righteous judge, not only to the good but also to the wicked, rendering to each according to his deeds, one may be worthy of unquenchable fire, and that either milder or more burning; another of the undying worm, and that again either paining more gently or more fiercely, according to each one's desert; another of hell, which certainly has different punishments; and another of the outer darkness, where one is only in weeping, while another is also in gnashing of teeth because of the intensity of his pains. And the outer darkness certainly implies that there is also an inner one. And the saying in Proverbs, “to the depths of Hades,” shows that there are some who are in Hades, but not in the depths of Hades, undergoing a lighter punishment. One can picture this even now in the sufferings of the body. One man has fever with other symptoms and ailments; another has fever only, and not like the first; another has no fever but is afflicted by pain in some limb, and this man again more or less than another. And the Lord spoke this “many and few” according to common usage, as also certain other such things. For we know that this form of speech is often used even of those afflicted by a single ailment, as when we say of someone with fever only, or with a pain in the eye, in wonder, “How much he has suffered!” or “How many hardships he has endured!” So to be beaten with many or few blows, I say again, lies not in the length or completion of time, but in the difference of the punishment.

Question. In what sense are some called sons of disobedience and children of wrath?

Answer. The Lord is accustomed to call those who do someone's will, whether good or evil, his children and sons. “For if you were children of Abraham,” he says, “you would do the works of Abraham”; and again, “You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father.” So one who works the works of disobedience becomes a son of disobedience. And perhaps, as the devil is called not only a sinner but sin itself, because he became, as I think, the author of sin, so the devil might also be called disobedience itself for the same reason. And one is a child of wrath inasmuch as he has made himself worthy of wrath. For as the Apostle called those worthy of the Lord, who do the works of light and of day, sons of light and sons of day, so it is fitting to understand also, “We were children of wrath.” One must know, however, that the son of disobedience is the same as the child of wrath, since the Lord declared: “He who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him.”

Question. Since it is written, “Doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts,” whether the [wishes of the flesh] are one thing [and those of the thoughts another].

Answer. The wishes of the flesh the Apostle lists by name, one by one, in another place, saying: “Now the works of the flesh are plain, which are adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, rages, rivalries, dissensions, factions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and things like these”; and elsewhere more comprehensively: “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.” The wishes of the thoughts would be reasonings not attested by Scripture, such as those of which it is said, “Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” and thoughts not taken captive to the obedience of Christ. Therefore it is necessary and safe always and everywhere to keep what was said by David: …

Question. What is the meaning of “Perplexed, but not in despair”?

Answer. The Apostle, showing the full assurance of his trust in God by contrast with the human mind, sets down each of the things in this passage in this way. As regards the human mind, he says, “Afflicted in every way”; as regards trust in God he adds, “But not crushed.” Again, as regards the human mind, “Perplexed”; as regards trust in God, “Not in despair”; and the rest likewise. Such too are the things he said elsewhere: “As dying, and behold, we live; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

Question. Since the Lord says, “But give as alms what is within, and see, all things are clean for you,” does one find cleansing through almsgiving for everything he has sinned?

Answer. The sequence of what precedes makes the saying clear. For having first said, “You cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but your inside is full of robbery and wickedness,” he then added, “But give as alms what is within, and see, all things are clean for you”: all these things, plainly, in which we sin and do wickedness by robbing and grasping. Zacchaeus shows this too, saying: “See, half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” So sins of this kind, which can be undone and for which one can repay many times over, are cleansed in this way; and in this way, I say, not as sufficient in itself for cleansing, but needing above all the mercy of God and the blood of Christ, in whom we have redemption from all the others too, by bearing fruits worthy of repentance for each.

Question. Since it is the Lord's command not to be anxious about tomorrow, how shall we understand the command soundly? For we see that we take great pains over what serves our need, so as to lay up even what can suffice for a longer time.

Answer. One who has accepted the teaching of the Lord, who said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and is fully assured of the truth of his promise, when he added, “And all these things will be added to you,” does not let his soul be idle in the worldly cares that choke the word and make it unfruitful. Contending in the good contest of pleasing God, he believes the Lord, who said, “The workman is worthy of his food,” and busies himself with nothing for its sake. He works and takes care, not for himself, but for Christ's commandment, as the Apostle showed and taught, saying: “In all things I showed you that by labouring like this we must help the weak.” For to be anxious for oneself is the charge of self-love; but to be anxious and to work for the commandment is the praise of a disposition that loves Christ and the brothers.

Question. What must one do to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?

Answer. From the blasphemy uttered then by the Pharisees, against whom this judgment was set, it is plain that he blasphemes against the Holy Spirit now too who ascribes the workings and fruits of the Holy Spirit to the adversary; which many of us do, often recklessly calling the zealous man vainglorious, falsely charging one who shows good zeal with anger, and in evil suspicions falsely ascribing other such things.

Question. How does one become a fool in this age?

Answer. If he fears the judgment of God, who says, “Woe to those who are wise in themselves and knowing in their own sight,” and imitates him who said, “I became like a beast before you”; and, casting away all conceit of understanding, does not first approve any of his own reasonings as good, nor indeed reason anything at all, until he has been accustomed by the Lord's commandment itself to what pleases God, whether in deed, word, or thought, since the Apostle said: “Such is the confidence we have through Christ toward God; not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reason anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,” who teaches man knowledge, as it is written.

Question. Whether Satan can hinder the purpose of a saint, since it is written, “I Paul proposed to come once and again, and Satan hindered us.”

Answer. Of good deeds in the Lord, some are accomplished by the purpose and judgment of the soul, and others are carried out through the body, either in zeal or in endurance. What lies in the purpose and judgment of the soul Satan can in no way hinder; but in what is achieved through bodily action God often allows some obstacle to arise, for the testing and proving of the one hindered: so that either, changing from his good purpose, he may be exposed, like those sown on the rock, who received the word with joy for a while, but when affliction came at once fell away; or, persevering in good things, he may be shown in his zeal for good deeds, like the Apostle himself, who often purposed to go to the Romans and was prevented, as he himself confessed, yet did not cease wishing until he fulfilled what he had purposed; or in endurance, like Job, who, suffering so much from the devil, who was forcing him to utter something blasphemous or to be ungrateful to God, even to the last calamities did not depart from his pious judgment and from thinking soundly about God. For it is written of him: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips before God, and did not charge God with folly.”

Question. What is the meaning of what the Apostle said, “That you may prove what is the will of God, good, and acceptable, and perfect”?

Answer. There are many things that God wills: some in patience and kindness, which are and are called good; others in wrath because of our sins, which are called evils. “For I am he,” he says, “who makes peace and creates evils”: evils, not those for which we are punished, but those through which we are disciplined. And what disciplines and leads to turning back through affliction turns out for good. Whatever, then, God wills in patience and kindness, it is necessary for us too to will and imitate. “Be merciful,” he says, “as your Father also is merciful.” And the Apostle says: “Be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, as Christ also loved us.” But what he brings in wrath because of our sins, which are called evils, as I said, by reason of the affliction, it is by no means permitted for us also to do. For it is not because it is God's will that people often perish by famine or plague or war or some other such thing that we must serve this will. For such things God also uses evil servants, according to what is said: “He sent out against them the wrath of his anger, rage and wrath and affliction, a sending by evil angels.” So we must first seek what the good will of God is; then, when we have recognized the good, examine whether this good is also acceptable to God. For there is something that is in its own nature both God's will and good, but when it is done by the wrong person or at the wrong time, it is no longer acceptable to God. For example, it was God's will and good to offer incense to God, but it was not acceptable to God that Dathan and Abiram and their company should do it. And again, it is God's will and good to give alms, but to do it in order to be glorified by men is no longer acceptable to God. And again, it was God's will and good that the disciples should proclaim on the housetops what they heard in the ear; but to say something before the time was no longer acceptable to God. “Tell the vision to no one,” he says, “until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” And in general every will of God is good and acceptable when what the Apostle said is fulfilled in it: “Do all to the glory of God”; and, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” And again, when something is God's will, and good, and acceptable, not even so should one be at ease, but should be anxious and take thought that it may be perfect and lacking nothing: measured sometimes by what is done, whether it is done as commanded, and sometimes by the strength of the doer. “For you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your might, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself,” as the Lord also taught in the Gospel according to John; and every commandment likewise, as it is written: “For blessed,” he says, “is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.”

Question. What is the inner room into which the Lord commands the one who prays to enter?

Answer. Common usage calls an inner room a quiet and secluded chamber, in which we put away whatever we wish to store; or in which it is possible to hide, as is said in the prophet too: “Go, my people, enter into your inner room, hide yourself.” But the occasion makes clear the force of the commandment: for the word is addressed to those sick with the passion of man-pleasing. So if someone is troubled by that passion, he does well to withdraw in prayer and be alone, until he can acquire the habit of not looking around for the praises of men but looking to God alone, after him who said: “Behold, as the eyes of servants to the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes to the Lord our God.” But if someone by God's grace is pure of that passion, he has no need to hide what is good. Teaching this, the Lord himself says: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the measure, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” The same meaning holds for almsgiving and fasting, which stand in the same passage, and in general for every matter of godliness.

Question. How does someone's spirit pray while his mind is unfruitful?

Answer. This was said of those who offer up prayers in a tongue unknown to the hearers. For it says: “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” When the words of the prayer are unknown to those present, the mind of the one praying is unfruitful, since no one is benefited; but when those present understand the prayer, which can benefit those who hear, then the one praying has as fruit the improvement of those who are benefited. And likewise with every utterance of the words of God. For it is written: “But only such as is good for the building up of faith.”

Question. What is the meaning of “Sing psalms with understanding”?

Answer. What perception of the quality of each food is in eating, understanding is in the words of holy Scripture. “For the throat tastes food,” it says, “but the mind discerns words.” If, then, someone's soul is so attuned to the force of each word as his taste is attuned to the quality of each food, such a one has fulfilled the commandment that says: “Sing psalms with understanding.”

Question. Who is the pure in heart?

Answer. One who does not catch himself in setting aside a commandment of God, or falling short of it, or neglecting it.

Question. Should a sister who does not wish to sing psalms be compelled?

Answer. If she does not come to the singing with desire, and the disposition of him who said, “How sweet are your words to my throat, sweeter than honey to my mouth,” does not show in her, and if she does not count idleness a great loss, let her either correct herself or be removed, so that a little leaven may not corrupt the whole lump.

Question. Who are those who say, “We ate and drank in your presence,” and hear, “I do not know you”?

Answer. Perhaps those whom the Apostle described in his own person, saying, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,” and so on; “and if I have all knowledge and all faith; and if I give away all my goods; and if I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” This the Apostle was taught by the Lord, who said of certain people: “For they do it to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.” For what is done not out of love for God but for praise from men, whatever it may be, does not win the praise of godliness, but carries the judgment of man-pleasing, or self-pleasing, or contentiousness, or envy, or some such cause. That is why the Lord calls such a thing a work of unrighteousness, saying to those who said, “We ate in your presence,” and so on: “Depart from me, all you workers of unrighteousness.” For how are they not workers of unrighteousness who abuse God's gifts as a trade for their own pleasures? Such were those of whom the Apostle says, “For we are not, like many, peddling the word of God,” and again, “supposing that godliness is a means of gain,” and many such things. From all of which the same Apostle has been shown to us to be pure, when he says: “Not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For we never came with a word of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for covetousness, God is witness; nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others.”

Question. Whether one who does someone's will is that person's partner.

Answer. If we believe the Lord, who says, “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin,” and again, “You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father,” we know that he is not simply a partner, but inscribes as his lord and father the one whose work he does, according to the Lord's word. And the Apostle too testifies to this clearly, saying: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness?”

Question. If a brotherhood becomes poor through circumstance or sickness, is it without scruple to receive what it needs from others? And if so, from whom shall it receive?

Answer. One who remembers the Lord, who said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,” takes great care, with more zeal and diligence, to be worthy of being counted a brother of the Lord. If, then, someone is such, let him have no scruple in receiving, but give thanks. From whom one should receive, and when, and how, the one appointed to the common care must judge, remembering David, who said, “Let not the oil of a sinner anoint my head,” and again, “He who walked in a blameless way, he ministered to me.”

Question. Whether a brotherhood trading with a brotherhood should be particular about the fair price of the goods.

Answer. Whether reason allows brothers to buy from one another and sell to one another, I have nothing to say; for we are taught to share with one another according to need, as it is written: “Your abundance for their want, and their abundance for your want, so that there may be equality.” But if such a necessity should ever arise, the buyer should take more care not to give less than the fair price than the seller should. And let both remember him who said: “It is not good to harm a righteous man.”

Question. Whether one living in a brotherhood who falls into bodily illness should be taken to the hospice.

Answer. One must consider each place and its proper purpose, toward what benefits all in common, to the glory of God.

Question. What are the fruits worthy of repentance?

Answer. The works of righteousness opposed to the sin, which the one who repents ought to bear as fruit, doing what is said: “Bearing fruit in every good work.”

Question. Whether one who wishes to confess his sins ought to confess them to everyone, and to anyone at all, or to whom.

Answer. The aim of God's love for mankind toward sinners is plain, according to what is written: “I do not desire the death of the sinner, so much as that he turn and live.” Since, then, the manner of turning back must be suited to the sin, and there is also need of fruits worthy of repentance, as it is written, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” so that the threat that follows may not come about through lack of fruits (“For every tree,” it says, “that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire”), it is necessary to confess sins to those entrusted with the stewardship of the mysteries of God. For so those who repented of old are also found to have done in the presence of the saints. For it is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist, and in Acts, to the apostles, by whom also they were all baptized.

Question. What shall one do who has repented of a sin and falls again into the same sin?

Answer. That someone who has once repented should commit the same sin again is proof that he has not cleansed away the first cause of that sin, from which, as from a root, the same things must of necessity grow again. For as, if someone should wish to cut off the branches of a plant but leave the root, the root, remaining, puts forth the same things again none the less, so, since some sins do not have their beginning in themselves but grow from others, it is altogether necessary that one who wishes to be cleansed of them remove the first causes of those sins. For example, strife or envy does not begin from itself, but sprouts from the root of love of glory. For one who lays claim to glory among men strives with the one held in repute, or envies the one held in more repute. If, then, someone who has once caught himself in envy or strife falls into the same things again, let him recognize that he is sick deep down with the first cause of the envy or strife, love of glory. And he must heal the passion of love of glory by its opposite, through the exercises of humility (for occupation with humbler tasks is an exercise of humility), so that, coming in this way into the disposition of humility, he may no longer fall into the aforesaid shoots of love of glory; and likewise with each of such sins.

Question. How does one always abound in the work of the Lord?

Answer. Either by multiplying the gift given him in the benefit and progress of those he does good to, or by showing more zeal in the work of the Lord than is shown in human pursuits by comparison.

Question. What is the bruised reed, or the smoldering wick? And how does one not break the one and not quench the other?

Answer. The bruised reed, I reckon, is the one who does a commandment of God with some passion. Such a one must not be broken and cut off, but rather healed, as the Lord taught, saying, “Take care not to do your alms before people, so as to be seen by them.” And the Apostle commands, saying, “Do all things without grumbling and disputing,” and elsewhere, “Nothing from rivalry or vainglory.” The smoldering wick is when someone does the commandment, not with fiery desire and perfect zeal, but somewhat sluggishly and slackly. Such a one must not be stopped, but rather roused by being reminded of God’s judgments and of his promises.

Question. Whether in a brotherhood one should be a teacher of children of people living in the world.

Answer. The Apostle said, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” If those who bring the children bring them with such an aim, and those who receive them are fully assured that they can bring up those brought to them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, let the Lord’s command be kept, for he said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” But without such an aim and such a hope, I reckon this neither pleasing to God nor fitting or profitable for us.

Question. How should one deal with those who refuse the greater sins but commit the small ones without concern?

Answer. First one must know that this distinction is not to be learned in the New Testament. For one sentence is laid down against all sins, since the Lord said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”; and again, “The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day”; and John cries out, “Whoever disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him.” Disobedience carries the threat, not according to the difference of sins, but in the disobedience itself. In general, if we are permitted to speak of a small and a great sin, the indisputable proof would have to be that for each person great is what masters him, and small what he masters; just as among athletes the one who has won is the stronger, and the one defeated is weaker than the one who prevailed, whoever he may be. So in the case of everyone who sins, whatever his sin, one must keep the judgment of the Lord, who said, “If your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen, take with you one or two more, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.” In all such cases let what the Apostle said be kept as well: “Why did you not rather mourn, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from your midst?” For patience and compassion must go with severity.

Question. For what cause does one fall away from the continual remembrance of God?

Answer. If one becomes forgetful of God's benefits and is found without a sense of gratitude toward the Benefactor.

Question. By what signs is the distracted man recognized?

Answer. When someone neglects what serves to please God, since the Prophet said: “I set the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved.”

Question. How may the soul be fully assured that it is clean of its sins?

Answer. If one perceives in himself the disposition of David, who said, “I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness”; or perceives whether he has achieved in himself what was commanded by the Apostle, who said, “Put to death therefore your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; on account of which the wrath of God comes,” where, extending such a judgment over every sin, he added, “upon the sons of disobedience”; so that he can say, “A crooked heart has not clung to me; when the wicked turned away from me, I did not know him.” And one recognizes himself as established in such a disposition if he also takes up toward those who sin the same shuddering compassion as the saints; for David said, “I saw the senseless and was wasting away, because they did not keep your words,” and the Apostle says, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” For if, by the truth of reason, the soul is better than the body, and we see that with the body we loathe and abhor all filth, and the sight of every laceration and every injury works contrition and grief in the heart, how much more fitting is it for one who loves Christ and the brothers to suffer what has been said over those who sin, when he sees the soul of sinners wounded and devoured as by wild beasts, and showing, as it were, discharges and putrefaction? As David said, “My iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they have weighed on me. My wounds have grown foul and festered because of my folly; I have been wretched and bowed down utterly; I went about mourning all the day”; and the Apostle says, “The sting of death is sin.” When, then, someone perceives his soul so disposed, whether over his own sins or over those of others, according to what was said from the beginning, then let him be fully assured that he is clean of sin.

Question. How should one turn back from sins?

Answer. By emulating the disposition of David, who first says, “I acknowledged my iniquity, and did not hide my sin. I said, I will declare my iniquity against myself to the Lord”; and then by describing the manner in the sixth psalm, and in many other ways in others; and by learning through the Apostle what he testified of the Corinthians over another's sin, saying, “For godly grief works repentance to salvation, not to be regretted,” and adding the marks of that grief: “For see what earnestness this very godly grief has produced in you: what defence, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! In everything you have shown yourselves to be pure in the matter.” So it is clear from these that one must not only withdraw from sin and suffer these things over those who sin, but also stand apart from the sinners themselves; as David showed this too, saying, “Depart from me, all you who work iniquity,” and the Apostle commanded not even to eat with such a one.

Question. Whether the Word allows good things to be done for one's own pleasure.

Answer. One who pleases himself pleases a man; for each one is himself a man. As, then, “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man, and will lean on the flesh of his arm” (which signifies his trust in himself), to which he adds, “and whose soul departs from the Lord,” so also one who pleases another, or does anything for his own pleasure, falls away from godliness and falls into man-pleasing. “For they do it,” says the Lord, “to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.” And the Apostle confesses: “If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” And a more severe threat is uttered in the God-inspired Scripture, which says: “God has scattered the bones of men-pleasers.”

Question. How may the soul be fully assured that it has departed from love of glory?

Answer. When it heeds the Lord, who said, “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” and the Apostle, who commands, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”; so that the godly man, laying claim neither to present nor to future glory, but preferring love for God to everything, may have boldness to say with the things set out there, “Neither things present nor things to come will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”; since our Lord Jesus Christ himself said, “But I do not seek my own glory,” and, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him, he is true.”

Question. What is the manner of turning back, when the matter concerns something unseen?

Answer. The manner of turning back is shown in that question, “How should one turn back from sins?” As for the matter concerning something unseen, let us remember the Lord, who said that “there is nothing hidden that will not be known,” and that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Question. And if he says, “My conscience does not condemn me”?

Answer. This also happens with bodily diseases. For there are many diseases which the sick do not perceive; yet they trust the physicians' diagnosis rather than heed their own lack of feeling. So also with the passions of the soul, that is, with sins: even if someone does not condemn himself, not perceiving the sin, he ought nevertheless to believe those who can see his state better. The holy apostles showed this when, though fully assured of their own sincere disposition toward the Lord, on hearing, “One of you will betray me,” they believed the Lord's word rather, and were distressed, saying, “Is it I, Lord?” And holy Peter teaches us more clearly still: with burning humility he refuses the service of his Master, God, and Teacher; but, in full assurance of the truth of the Lord's words, when he heard, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me,” he says, “Not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

Question. Whether one should give from the stewardship to those in need from outside.

Answer. Since the Lord said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and, “It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs,” it is not necessary to spend on just anyone what has been assigned to those dedicated to God. But whether what was said by the woman praised for her faith can be done, “Yes, Lord; for even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from their masters' table,” let it be left to the judgment of the steward, with the common opinion of those who rank next after him; so that from what is left over the sun may rise, as it is written, on the evil and the good.

Question. Whether one should obey what is said by everyone in a brotherhood.

Answer. This question is very difficult to answer. First, because it plainly suggests disorder, in that something is said by everyone, since the Apostle says, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others discern”; and the same Apostle, in the distribution of the gifts, assigned to each of those who speak his own order, saying, “To each as God has apportioned a measure of faith”; and in the example of the members of the body showed clearly that the part of the one who speaks is a part, and distinguished it more exactly, saying, “Whether he who teaches, in teaching; or he who exhorts, in exhortation,” and the rest; so that it is clear from these that not everything has been entrusted to all, but each must remain in his own calling and fulfil more carefully what has been entrusted by the Lord. The superior of the community, then, who arranges for all, must be entrusted with this charge after much testing, and must keep watch with care for each as is fitting, so that he may arrange and command in a way pleasing to God and with an eye to each one's fitness and strength for the common good. And those under him, good order being kept and obedience knowing its own measure, must remember the Lord, who says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life,” and who had said before, “A stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers”; and the Apostle, who says, “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is conceited, understanding nothing,” and who, after what follows, adds, “Withdraw from such people”; and again elsewhere, “Do not despise prophecies; test all things; hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” So if something is said according to the Lord's commandment, or is directed toward the Lord's commandment, one must obey, even if it carries the threat of death; but if something is contrary to the commandment, or harms the commandment, even if an angel from heaven or one of the apostles commands it, even if it carries a promise of life or a threat of death, one must by no means put up with it, since the Apostle said: “Even if we ourselves, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Question. Whether, when the relatives of those handed over to the brotherhood wish to give something on their behalf, it should be accepted.

Answer. The care and judgment of this belongs to the superior. But, in my own opinion, I reckon that it gives less offence to the many, and is more profitable for the building up of faith, to refuse such favours. For from accepting them it first often happens that reproach is brought against the community. Then, it gives the relative of those who brought them an occasion for elation. Besides this, there happens what the Apostle said of those who eat and drink their own in the common gathering: “You shame those who have nothing”; and many such things. Since so many occasions for sin arise, it is good not to accept such things, but to leave it to the superior to judge both from whom one should receive and how it should be managed.

Question. Whether one should receive from those outside, either as a favour of friendship or from a previous kinship.

Answer. This question has the same force as the question, “Whether one should receive anything from relatives.”

Question. In what way is freedom from distraction achieved?

Answer. If one takes up the mind of the chosen David, who said at one time, “I set the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved,” at another, “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the snare,” and at another, “Behold, as the eyes of servants to the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes to the Lord our God.” And so that by the lesser example we may take more earnest care to achieve the greater, let each one consider what he is like in the presence of those around him, even if they happen to be his equals: how he strives to achieve blamelessness in standing, in walking, in the movement of every limb, and in speech. And as we strive to keep what is visible to men, so also, and much more, if someone is fully assured that he has God as overseer, who tries hearts and reins, as it is written, and the only-begotten Son of God fulfilling the promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” and the Holy Spirit presiding, distributing the gifts, and working, and the angels watching each one, according to what was said by the Lord, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that their angels in heaven always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven,” he has a struggle many times greater and more intense to achieve godliness that is pleasing; and so freedom from distraction is more strongly and exactly established. And further, if he is eager to fulfil the saying, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth,” and the saying, “He will meditate on his law day and night,” so that through steady and continual meditation and contemplation of the will and the glories of God the mind may find no occasion for distraction.

Question. Whether one should lead the psalmody or the prayer in turn.

Answer. In a large number of worthy brothers, let this keep good order, so that the thing may not be thought cheap and indifferent, nor yet may keeping it to one or two persons give rise to a suspicion of pride in the one who leads and of contempt for the rest.

Question. Whether in a brotherhood one should repay someone who gives something, and whether the return should be made in proportion to the gift.

Answer. This whole question is a human one. But if it is necessary to give proof of gratitude, let the judgment lie with the steward, both of receiving what is given and of repaying the one who gives.

Question. Whether one to whom something of the ordinary things that happen by nature has occurred should dare to come to the communion of the holy things.

Answer. The Apostle showed that the one buried with Christ in baptism is above nature and custom. At one time he said, in the passage about the baptism in water, after what goes before, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin”; at another he commanded, “Put to death, then, your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience”; and at another he set out a definition, saying, “And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” And I have known these things to be achieved by the grace of Christ, both in men and in women, through genuine faith in the Lord. That one who is in uncleanness should approach the holy things … we are taught, from the Old Testament as well, the judgment, more fearfully … And if something greater than the temple is here, plainly the Apostle will teach us more fearfully, saying, “Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

Question. Whether the offering should be made in an ordinary house.

Answer. Just as the word of God does not permit any ordinary vessel to be brought into the holy place, so neither does it permit the holy things to be performed in an ordinary house; for the Old Testament, by God’s command, plainly allows nothing of the kind to be done; and the Lord says, “Something greater than the temple is here”; and the Apostle says, “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you. For I handed down to you what I also received,” and what follows. From these we are taught neither to eat and drink the ordinary supper in a church, nor to insult the Lord’s Supper in a house, unless in necessity someone chooses a cleaner place or house at a fitting time.

Question. Whether one should go to make a visit when some ask for it.

Answer. Visiting is pleasing to God; but the one who visits must be an intelligent listener and prudent in his answers, fulfilling the saying, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.” But to make a visit for the sake of kinship or friendship is foreign to our profession.

Question. Whether lay people who visit should be urged to prayer.

Answer. If they are friends of God, it is fitting, since the Apostle wrote to them: “Pray also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth, to speak boldly the mystery of God.”

Question. Whether one should work when some people are visiting.

Answer. Nothing done according to the commandment should be cut short because of those who come in for a friendly duty; unless some special care of a soul takes precedence over bodily work according to the Lord's commandment, since the holy apostles said in Acts: “It is not pleasing that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.”