The Institutes

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 0.1–1.11 · 2.1–2.17 · 3.1–4.12 · 4.13–4.34 · 4.35–5.16 · 5.17–5.40 · 5.41–6.23 · 7.1–7.31 · 8.1–8.22 · 9.1–10.17 · 10.18–12.5 · 12.6–12.28 · 12.29–12.33

1. 0.1Cassian opens with Solomon, who, though wisest of men, accepted the help of the foreigner Hiram in building the temple.
2. 0.2Just as Solomon welcomed a poor foreigner's help, Bishop Castor, building a spiritual temple of monks, invites Cassian to assist.
3. 0.3Castor has asked Cassian to describe in plain words the monastic institutions of Egypt and Palestine for his new monastery.
4. 0.4Cassian hesitates: he feels unworthy, and after many years away from the Egyptian monks he cannot remember everything exactly.
5. 0.5Monastic life is learned only by experience; Cassian also notes that Basil and Jerome have already written on it.
6. 0.6Cassian ventures to write only because Castor has promised to receive his work kindly and to use it within his community.
7. 0.7Cassian will describe the monks' institutions and the eight principal vices, not their miracles, which only astonish without instructing.
8. 0.8Cassian will correct Gallic monastic customs by the ancient rule of Egypt and Palestine, which he considers the most perfect.
9. 0.9Where Egyptian practice is too hard for Gaul, Cassian will moderate it with the customs of Palestine or Mesopotamia.
10. 1.1The monk, a soldier of Christ, wears a girdle like Elijah, John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul, as the Scriptures show.
11. 1.2A monk's clothing should be plain and common to all; conspicuous hair shirts are rejected as a source of vanity.
12. 1.3The Egyptian monks' small hoods remind them to keep the innocence of children, as in Psalm 131.
13. 1.4The monks' short-sleeved linen tunics signify that they are dead to the works of this world.
14. 1.5Woollen cords bind up the monks' garments so that they are free for work, following Paul's example of manual labour.
15. 1.6A small cheap cape (mafors) covers the monks' shoulders instead of costly cloaks.
16. 1.7The monks' goatskin recalls the prophets of Heb 11 and signifies that carnal passions have been put to death.
17. 1.8The monk's staff, like Elisha's, signifies that he must never go unarmed against the vices but repel them by the cross.
18. 1.9The monks go without shoes, wearing only sandals when needed, and remove even these to celebrate or receive the sacred mysteries.
19. 1.10In Gaul monks should adopt only those Egyptian customs of dress that suit the climate and do not cause ridicule.
20. 1.11The girdle signifies readiness for work and the mortification of sexual desire.
21. 2.1Cassian turns to the number of psalms and prayers in the monastic night office; the inner quality of prayer is left for the Conferences.
22. 2.2Western monasteries follow many different rules for the number of psalms; Cassian proposes the ancient Egyptian practice instead.
23. 2.3In Egypt no one may lead a monastery until he has renounced everything, learned obedience, and been trained in the elders' teaching; hence the uniformity of their rule.
24. 2.4The Egyptian monks sing twelve psalms at evening and night, followed by two readings, a rule they say an angel taught.
25. 2.5The first monks of Alexandria, disciples of Mark, disputed how many psalms to sing, until an angel sang twelve and vanished.
26. 2.6The fathers adopted the twelve-psalm rule and added two Scripture readings, both from the New Testament on Saturdays, Sundays, and in Eastertide.
27. 2.7The Egyptian monks pray standing after each psalm, prostrate only briefly, and rise together with the one who concludes the prayer.
28. 2.8Unlike the Gallic custom, in the East the Gloria Patri is not sung after each psalm but only after the antiphon.
29. 2.9Cassian gives a brief account of prayer here, reserving a fuller one for the Conferences, which will treat the inner life and the hermits.
30. 2.10During the synaxis total silence is kept; prayers are short and frequent, so that the devil cannot distract the praying mind.
31. 2.11Psalms are divided into short sections with prayers, sung with understanding rather than haste; no more than four brothers lead the singing.
32. 2.12The monks sit during the psalms because they are worn out by work and fasting, and after the office continue praying in their cells until dawn.
33. 2.13The monks do not go back to sleep after the night office, lest the devil defile them in sleep or drowsiness dull them for the day.
34. 2.14Manual work anchors the wandering mind in the cell, so that work and meditation support each other.
35. 2.15After the office the monks work in silence, meditating on Scripture; private conversations or gatherings are punished by public penance.
36. 2.16No one may pray with a brother suspended from prayer until the abbot publicly reconciles him, since he is delivered to Satan for correction.
37. 2.17The monk who wakes the community must watch the stars for the right hour; on Sundays and in Eastertide the Egyptians neither kneel nor fast.
38. 3.1Cassian turns to the day offices of the third, sixth, and ninth hours, following the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia.
39. 3.2In Egypt the monks pray continually while they work, so they hold no public day offices except for Communion on Saturday and Sunday.
40. 3.3The day offices at the third, sixth, and ninth hours commemorate Pentecost, the crucifixion, Peter's vision, the descent to hell, and Cornelius; morning and evening prayer also have scriptural grounds.
41. 3.4The morning office (Prime) was introduced in Cassian's own monastery at Bethlehem to stop monks sleeping until the third hour; it completes seven daily offices.
42. 3.5Some Gallic monks wrongly go back to sleep after the morning office; the Egyptians instead watch until daylight.
43. 3.6The new morning office did not alter the night psalms; Psalms 50, 62, and 89 were assigned to it.
44. 3.7A monk late for a day office must wait outside and do penance before he may attend the next; at night he may come as late as the second psalm.
45. 3.8The weekly all-night vigil before the Sabbath ends in time for a short sleep, so that the monks are not tempted to sleep during the day.
46. 3.9The Saturday vigil commemorates the disciples' watch after the crucifixion; in the East the fast is relaxed on Saturday as well as Sunday.
47. 3.10The Roman custom of fasting on Saturday, based on Peter's fast before his contest with Simon Magus, arose from a single necessity, not a rule.
48. 3.11On Sunday a single office with Communion replaces the third and sixth hours, marking the day of the resurrection as a festival.
49. 3.12The extra supper allowed on Saturdays, Sundays, and feasts is optional and is begun and ended with a simple prayer instead of psalms.
50. 4.1Cassian turns to the reception and training of novices, drawing on the Egyptians and on the vast Pachomian community of Tabennesi.
51. 4.2Cassian will explain how the Egyptian monks' lifelong obedience is formed from the very beginning of their renunciation.
52. 4.3A candidate must wait for ten days at the gate enduring rejection and insults, and must keep no money at all.
53. 4.4The monks refuse a novice's money even for the community, lest he become proud or later demand it back.
54. 4.5The new monk is stripped of his own clothes before the brothers and clothed by the abbot, learning to own nothing and trust in God.
55. 4.6A novice's own clothes are kept in case he must be expelled; anyone who leaves must go without the monastery's habit.
56. 4.7The novice first spends a year serving guests at the gate, then is placed under an elder in charge of ten juniors.
57. 4.8The elder's first task is to teach the novice to renounce his own will, without which no vice can be overcome.
58. 4.9Novices are taught to reveal every thought to their elder and to trust his judgment, for a thought one is ashamed to disclose comes from the devil.
59. 4.10Juniors do nothing without their superior's permission and obey even seemingly impossible commands; Egyptian customs unsuited to Gaul are passed over.
60. 4.11Cassian passes over the Egyptians' extreme diet, unsuited to Gaul, and keeps to practices possible anywhere.
61. 4.12At the signal for prayer or work the monks leave their tasks instantly, a scribe not even finishing the letter he has begun.
62. 4.13Egyptian monks own nothing but their basic clothing and mat, and may not even say "my" of anything.
63. 4.14Though their work earns much, each monk takes only two small loaves, does no private work, and regards himself as a servant, not an owner.
64. 4.15Cassian contrasts the Egyptians with Gallic monks who keep keys, seals, and hoards, and promises examples from the elders' lives.
65. 4.16Minor faults such as breaking a jar or lateness are atoned by public prostration; grave faults are punished by beating or expulsion.
66. 4.17Reading at meals comes from Cappadocia to curb idle talk; in Egypt the monks eat in complete silence with their hoods drawn down.
67. 4.18Monks eat nothing outside the common meal and will not even touch fallen fruit in the orchards.
68. 4.19In the East the monks take weekly turns at kitchen service, ending the week by washing all the brothers' feet and handing over the vessels with care.
69. 4.20A monk who let three lentils fall was suspended from prayer, for the monks treat all the monastery's goods as consecrated to God.
70. 4.21Brothers whose week of service fell during a wood shortage gathered straws in the desert rather than serve their brothers cold food.
71. 4.22In Egypt, to save working time, one experienced brother runs the kitchen permanently; the food is mostly dry or raw.
72. 4.23Cassian gives examples of obedience, beginning with John of Lycopolis, whose prophecies guided the emperor Theodosius against usurpers.
73. 4.24John obeyed his elder by watering a dry stick every day for a year, fetching water from two miles away.
74. 4.25At his elder's command John threw their only flask of oil out of the window without hesitating.
75. 4.26Ordered to move an immovable rock, John strained at it until he was soaked in sweat, trusting that his elder commanded nothing without reason.
76. 4.27Patermutus, received with his young son, endured seeing the boy mistreated and obeyed an order to throw him into the river, from which brothers stationed there rescued him.
77. 4.28God revealed that Patermutus had matched Abraham's obedience, and he later succeeded as abbot.
78. 4.29A count's son was made to peddle baskets one by one in the streets, and obeyed gladly for Christ's humility.
79. 4.30Abba Pinufius, an honoured priest, fled in disguise to Tabennesi to live as a lowly novice until he was recognized three years later and brought back.
80. 4.31Pinufius fled again, to Cassian's monastery at Bethlehem, but was recognized by Egyptian pilgrims and brought home.
81. 4.32Cassian records the exhortation Pinufius gave to a novice at his reception, beginning with the reason for the long wait at the gate.
82. 4.33Pinufius explains that novices are tested because a monastic vow poorly kept brings greater punishment than none at all.
83. 4.34Renunciation means being crucified to the world and living with one's will nailed to the cross of Christ.
84. 4.35As a crucified man cannot move his limbs or care for the world, the monk, crucified by the fear of the Lord, is dead to all desires.
85. 4.36The novice must never take back what he renounced, look back to his family, or grow proud, but persevere to the end.
86. 4.37The devil lies in wait to the end, so the novice must crush evil thoughts at their beginning by revealing them to his elder.
87. 4.38The monk must prepare for trials, not comfort, and live as one of the few who enter by the narrow gate.
88. 4.39Pinufius traces the path from the fear of the Lord through renunciation to humility, gives ten signs of humility, and says humility leads to love that casts out fear.
89. 4.40The novice should take as models one or two proven monks rather than the many.
90. 4.41In community the monk should be deaf, dumb, and blind to others' faults, and a fool for Christ in unquestioning obedience.
91. 4.42Patience must come from one's own humility, not from others refraining from provocation.
92. 4.43Pinufius sums up the ladder: fear of the Lord, compunction, renunciation, humility, mortification of will, expulsion of vices, virtues, purity of heart, perfect love.
93. 5.1Cassian begins his treatment of the eight principal vices, starting with gluttony.
94. 5.2Cassian prays that God's word will expose the hidden causes of the vices, as Isaiah promised to break gates of bronze.
95. 5.3The first struggle is against gluttony; Cassian turns to Egyptian practice on fasting and food.
96. 5.4Following Antony, the monk should gather each virtue like a bee from those who excel in it, since Christ is now found in parts among his saints.
97. 5.5Fasting cannot follow one rule for all bodies, but all share one aim: never to eat to fullness.
98. 5.6Overeating even plain food breeds lust, as the sin of Sodom shows; how much more meat and wine taken freely.
99. 5.7The sick may eat richer food and still keep purity, if they take only what need, not pleasure, requires.
100. 5.8True fasting is to stop eating while still hungry; Paul forbids indulging the flesh, not caring for it.
101. 5.9Moderate daily eating is better than long fasts followed by excess, which weaken the mind and prayer.
102. 5.10Fasting alone is insufficient; humility, poverty, and victory over anger, dejection, vainglory, pride, and wandering thoughts must accompany it.
103. 5.11Lust cannot be conquered unless gluttony and the other vices are too, since the virtues form one whole and a city falls through any gate.
104. 5.12As athletes must prove themselves in lesser games before the great contests, the monk must conquer lesser vices before the struggle against lust.
105. 5.13The monk must first prove himself free by mastering the flesh before he can fight the inner battles.
106. 5.14Gluttony is overcome by fasting, vigils, reading, and compunction, until food is taken only as a burdensome necessity and the mind is fixed on heavenly things.
107. 5.15Like an archer fixing his eye only on the target, the monk must keep his gaze on the heavenly prize.
108. 5.16Only those who have conquered gluttony may face the spiritual powers; Paul's words "no temptation but what is human" are a rebuke, not a wish.
109. 5.17Paul is the model athlete of Christ, who ran with his eyes on the prize, disciplined his body, and awaited the crown.
110. 5.18Paul's boxing against his own body means fasting; having won it, he turned to fight the spiritual powers in the air.
111. 5.19Each victory brings stronger enemies, but the spiritual battle can be fought only after the flesh is subdued.
112. 5.20The monk must never eat outside mealtimes, for one who cannot master small visible desires cannot master hidden ones.
113. 5.21Bodily fasting profits only if the soul also fasts from detraction, anger, envy, vainglory, and wandering desires.
114. 5.22Fasting aims at purity of heart; it is worse to devour one's brothers by detraction, anger, and envy than to eat permitted food.
115. 5.23Gluttony has three forms; monks should eat plain common food such as bread, hide their fasting, and set it aside for the sake of guests.
116. 5.24Egyptian elders broke their fasts to welcome Cassian and his companion, saying that love for Christ in the guest outweighs voluntary fasting.
117. 5.25An elder who had eaten six times with arriving guests out of hospitality urged Cassian to eat more.
118. 5.26A hermit never ate alone but waited up to five days for a guest; the monks make up by stricter fasting for meals shared with visitors.
119. 5.27Paesius said the sun had never seen him eat; John replied that it had never seen him angry.
120. 5.28Dying, John left his brothers the rule of his life: never doing his own will and never teaching what he had not first done.
121. 5.29Abba Machetes never grew sleepy during spiritual talk but fell asleep at once if anyone slandered or spoke idly.
122. 5.30Machetes fell into the three practices he had once condemned in others, and so taught that one must never judge a brother.
123. 5.31Machetes showed that the devil makes monks sleepy during spiritual talk and alert at idle stories.
124. 5.32A monk burned unopened the letters of his family after fifteen years, lest they disturb his contemplation.
125. 5.33Abba Theodore, nearly unable to speak Greek, understood the Scriptures through purity of heart and once prayed seven days for the answer to a question.
126. 5.34Theodore taught that the Scriptures are understood not through commentaries but by purifying the heart, which removes the veil of the passions.
127. 5.35Theodore rebuked the young Cassian for sleeping after the evening office; Cassian turns to Archebius's charity, since fasting pleases God only with love.
128. 5.36At Diolcos Cassian visited hermits on a barren island between the Nile and the sea who carried their scarce water three miles.
129. 5.37The hermit Archebius pretended to be leaving so as to give his cell to Cassian, and did the same again for other brothers, building himself new cells.
130. 5.38Archebius, who had not seen his mother in fifty years, tripled his work for a year to pay off his dead father's debt and free her from creditors.
131. 5.39An elder commissioned a useless Latin copy of Paul's letters from the Italian monk Symeon so that he could support him without shaming him.
132. 5.40Two boys sent with figs to a sick hermit lost their way in the desert and died of hunger and thirst without touching the fruit.
133. 5.41Macarius taught that a monk should fast as if he would live a hundred years and bear injuries as if he would die today.
134. 6.1The second struggle, against sexual immorality, is the longest and needs fasting together with contrition, prayer, Scripture, work, and humility.
135. 6.2Sexual sin comes from the heart, so the heart must be cleansed, not only the body disciplined by fasting.
136. 6.3Unlike anger, which is cured by living among others, sexual temptation is best cured by solitude, away from its occasions.
137. 6.4Cassian distinguishes the continent man, who resists desire, from the truly chaste, who no longer feels it; many are continent in community, but chastity is rarely attained there.
138. 6.5The spirit of sexual immorality can be overcome only with God's help, and the soul is attacked until it learns this.
139. 6.6Chastity is above all God's gift; it makes men like the angels and gives them heavenly citizenship while still in the flesh.
140. 6.7Athletes abstain from food, idleness, and even marital relations, and guard against nocturnal emissions, to keep their strength for the contest.
141. 6.8If athletes guard their purity so carefully, how much more must monks who daily receive the flesh of the Lamb, as Leviticus requires.
142. 6.9Monks must keep purity even in their secret thoughts, where God watches as the judge of the contest.
143. 6.10The test of purity is that no alluring image arises in sleep, or that it stirs no desire; such stirrings are not full sin but show imperfection.
144. 6.11Nocturnal illusions reveal the careless thoughts of the day, as an illness reveals earlier unhealthy eating.
145. 6.12Christ's saying about looking with desire places the fault in the heart, not the eyes, which is why Scripture says to guard the heart.
146. 6.13Thoughts of women, even of relatives, must be expelled at once, crushing evil thoughts at their beginning like the serpent's head or Babylon's infants.
147. 6.14Cassian will quote only one of Paul's sayings in praise of chastity.
148. 6.15Paul in 1 Thess 4 identifies sanctification with abstaining from sexual immorality and keeping the body in holiness, where the Holy Spirit dwells.
149. 6.16Hebrews 12 likewise says that without holiness, understood as chastity, no one will see God.
150. 6.17Because chastity is so great a reward, it is fiercely attacked and must be defended by prayer as well as continence.
151. 6.18Chastity is possible without knowledge, but spiritual knowledge is impossible without chastity; Paul excelled in both.
152. 6.19Basil's saying "I do not know a woman, and I am not a virgin" shows that chastity lies in the heart, not only in abstinence.
153. 6.20Perfect chastity means that nocturnal emissions occur without pleasure or awareness and only rarely, about every two months or less often.
154. 6.21This state is kept by remembering that God sees and will judge every thought.
155. 6.22The goal is that the body's natural discharge involves no pleasure; dreams of images show that chastity is not yet perfect.
156. 6.23Moderate and even fasting, humility, freedom from anger, and night vigils protect against nocturnal illusions.
157. 7.1Love of money, the third vice, is not natural but arises from a lukewarm renunciation.
158. 7.2Love of money is easy to avoid at first, but once admitted becomes the root of all evils.
159. 7.3Sexual desire, anger, and sadness are natural and have good uses given by the Creator, though they can be misused.
160. 7.4The Creator is not to blame when natural impulses are misused, any more than the maker of iron is to blame for a murder.
161. 7.5Envy and love of money have no natural root, so they are easy to avoid but very hard to cure once they take hold.
162. 7.6Love of money, being the root of all evils, is hard to cure and must not be taken lightly.
163. 7.7Love of money begins with plausible fears about sickness and old age, leads to secret trade, and ends as idolatry, loving the emperor's image on coins instead of God's image.
164. 7.8The avaricious monk becomes discontented with everything and declares he must leave the monastery.
165. 7.9The monk with hidden money grows insolent, complains, seeks grievances, and stirs others up before leaving.
166. 7.10Separated from the community like a sheep from the flock, the avaricious monk works day and night for gain and abandons prayer and fasting.
167. 7.11Some avaricious monks even take women to guard their money, and fall into ruin as 1 Timothy 6 warns.
168. 7.12A monk rebuked for acquiring money retorted that his abbot also had resources.
169. 7.13Describing the vices in detail is necessary for their cure; some things are omitted lest the book reach the untrained.
170. 7.14Love of money takes three forms, illustrated by Gehazi, Judas, and Ananias and Sapphira.
171. 7.15Those who fear to give up their wealth should not begin monastic life at all, as Deuteronomy and the parable of the king going to war teach.
172. 7.16Some monks misuse "it is more blessed to give" to keep their wealth, against Christ's command to sell everything.
173. 7.17Paul and the Jerusalem believers gave up their means and lived by labour or gifts; those who gave to them were not more blessed than they.
174. 7.18Monks must renounce the world truly and live by their own work, not by money kept back.
175. 7.19Basil told a senator who kept part of his wealth that he had ceased to be a senator without becoming a monk.
176. 7.20Being defeated by so weak an enemy as love of money is especially shameful.
177. 7.21The victory over avarice is to keep not even a single coin, and to root out the very desire to possess.
178. 7.22Even the poor can be guilty of avarice in desire, just as one can commit adultery in the heart.
179. 7.23Judas's betrayal of Christ for thirty pieces of silver grew from his habit of stealing from the common purse.
180. 7.24Having the common purse did not satisfy Judas but inflamed his greed until he sold Christ himself.
181. 7.25Peter's judgment on Ananias and Sapphira for keeping back part of their property parallels Judas's fate; both sins grew from love of money.
182. 7.26Such monks are spiritual lepers like Gehazi.
183. 7.27The monk who has left all must not look back; even the poor have something to renounce, namely the desire to possess.
184. 7.28Perfect victory over avarice means allowing not even the smallest spark of desire for money.
185. 7.29This virtue is kept by staying in the monastery, content with food and clothing.
186. 7.30Remembering Ananias, Gehazi, and Judas, and the coming day of the Lord, monks must keep, acquire, and take back nothing.
187. 7.31Staying in the monastery requires patience grounded in humility.
188. 8.1Anger, the fourth vice, blinds the mind and destroys wisdom, justice, dignity, counsel, and peace, as the Scriptures show.
189. 8.2Some excuse anger against erring brothers by citing God's anger in Scripture, thereby attributing a passion to God.
190. 8.3If God's anger is taken literally, so must his sleeping, sitting, drunkenness, and bodily limbs, which is absurd.
191. 8.4Scripture's language of God's limbs and anger is figurative; God's "anger" means his just judgment, which the guilty experience as wrath.
192. 8.5Paul commands that all anger be removed; one who corrects a brother in anger is like a man with a beam in his eye.
193. 8.6Anger blinds, whatever its cause, just as a plate of gold blinds as much as one of lead.
194. 8.7Anger has one right use: against our own impure thoughts, before God who sees all.
195. 8.8Right anger is anger against anger itself, as David showed in pouring out the water from Bethlehem and sparing Shimei.
196. 8.9"Be angry and do not sin" means to be angry with our own vices; Christ, the sun of justice, must not set on an angry heart.
197. 8.10Christ the sun of justice sets for the angry; or the mind itself, the soul's sun, is darkened by anger, which the elders forbid even for a moment.
198. 8.11Some nurse their anger for days, refusing to speak kindly, and think it no sin because they take no revenge.
199. 8.12Anger held silently in the heart is still anger and excludes the Holy Spirit as much as anger expressed.
200. 8.13Christ forbids offering prayer while a brother has something against us, so anger held even briefly makes prayer impossible.
201. 8.14Christ requires us to seek reconciliation even when a brother holds something against us unjustly, since God wills the salvation of all.
202. 8.15Even the Old Testament law forbids hatred and remembering injuries in the heart.
203. 8.16Monks who blame their brothers for their anger and seek solitude to escape provocation will never gain patience.
204. 8.17Freedom from anger depends on our own long-suffering, not on others' good behaviour.
205. 8.18Only those already purified in community should seek the desert; there, uncured vices hide and grow wilder.
206. 8.19In solitude Cassian found himself angry at a pen, a knife, and a flint; anger must be cured, not merely deprived of people to vent on.
207. 8.20Anger must be rooted out of the heart, for God judges intentions: the angry man is liable to judgment and the hater is a murderer.
208. 8.21Cassian holds that "without cause" in Matt 5:22 is a later addition meant to excuse anger; the text forbids anger altogether.
209. 8.22The cure for anger: never to allow it for any cause, remembering that it darkens the mind, drives out the Spirit, bars prayer, and brings eternal punishment.
210. 9.1Dejection, the fifth vice, cuts the soul off from contemplation, prayer, reading, and peace with others, and drives it to despair.
211. 9.2Dejection harms the heart as a moth harms a garment and a worm wood.
212. 9.3A soul eaten by dejection is useless for the priestly garment of the Spirit or the spiritual temple, which needs incorruptible wood.
213. 9.4Dejection may follow anger or disappointed desire, or come without cause from the enemy, making us unfriendly even to those dear to us.
214. 9.5Our agitations come not from others but from seeds of vice already in ourselves.
215. 9.6No one is made to sin by another unless the material of sin is already in his heart.
216. 9.7God commands reconciliation rather than flight, since leaving others only changes, not removes, the causes of dejection.
217. 9.8When our own vices are corrected, nothing outside can make us stumble, and we can live at peace even with beasts.
218. 9.9A worse dejection leads not to repentance but to despair, as with Cain and Judas.
219. 9.10Sadness is useful only when it comes from penitence, desire for perfection, or longing for heaven.
220. 9.11Godly sadness is gentle and bears the fruits of the Spirit; worldly dejection is harsh, bitter, and destroys prayer and every spiritual fruit.
221. 9.12Every other kind of sadness must be driven out like the other vices.
222. 9.13Dejection is overcome by meditating on the promised blessedness, so that neither misfortune nor prosperity moves us.
223. 10.1The sixth vice, acedia or weariness of heart, attacks hermits especially at noon; some call it the noonday demon.
224. 10.2Acedia makes the monk hate his cell and brothers, long for other monasteries, feel hungry and tired at midday, watch the sun, and invent pious reasons to go visiting.
225. 10.3Acedia drives the monk to sleep or to leave his cell, until he forgets contemplation and becomes a deserter entangled in worldly affairs.
226. 10.4Psalm 119:28, "my soul has slumbered from weariness," describes acedia.
227. 10.5The monk must resist acedia on both fronts, neither yielding to sleep nor leaving the monastery.
228. 10.6Acedia either leaves a monk idle in his cell or makes him a wanderer, thinking only of food, until he is entangled in worldly affairs.
229. 10.7Cassian expounds 1 Thess 4:9–12 and 2 Thess 3:6–7: Paul gently, then sternly, rebukes idleness as the source of restlessness, meddling, dishonour, and greed.
230. 10.8Paul, though entitled to live by the gospel, worked night and day for his bread; how much more should monks, who preach nothing, work.
231. 10.9Silvanus and Timothy worked as Paul did, putting to shame idle monks who burden others.
232. 10.10Paul gave up his right to support in order to be an example of work.
233. 10.11Paul also taught plainly: whoever will not work shall not eat.
234. 10.12Paul's command "let him not eat" is an apostolic sentence meant to force the idle to work through fear of hunger.
235. 10.13Paul names the disease of the idle: restlessness, rooted in not working and branching into meddling.
236. 10.14Paul's single remedy for all these ills is to work quietly and eat one's own bread.
237. 10.15Paul tells the diligent not to grow weary of doing good even to the idle, and to keep showing them kindness.
238. 10.16Paul orders separation from the disobedient, but as a brother to be corrected, not as an enemy.
239. 10.17Paul commanded manual work in Ephesians and practised it at Corinth as a tentmaker with Aquila and Priscilla.
240. 10.18At Miletus Paul told the Ephesian presbyters he had worked for himself and his companions, to teach them to support the weak by their own labour.
241. 10.19"More blessed to give" means giving from one's own labour; the idle, by Paul's sentence, are unworthy even of bread.
242. 10.20An idle monk drove away zealous newcomers by persuading them to leave with him and then staying behind himself.
243. 10.21Solomon condemns idleness as the source of poverty, rags, thorns, and desires; the idle misuse sayings about spiritual food to excuse themselves.
244. 10.22Egyptian monks never allow idleness, and from their labour they feed guests, famine-stricken Libya, and prisoners.
245. 10.23Gallic monasteries stay small because they do not live by their own work; a working monk faces one demon, an idle one countless.
246. 10.24Abba Paul of Porphyrio worked daily at weaving palm leaves he could not sell and burned the year's work, solely to keep his heart pure and conquer acedia.
247. 10.25Abba Moses told the young Cassian that fleeing acedia by visiting someone only strengthens it; it must be overcome by staying and resisting.
248. 11.1The seventh vice, vainglory, is so varied and subtle that it is hard even to detect.
249. 11.2Vainglory attacks spiritual as well as fleshly life and, when repelled, returns disguised as virtue.
250. 11.3Vainglory attacks through every aspect of the monk's life, like a hidden rock that wrecks ships sailing in fair weather.
251. 11.4The monk must keep to the royal road between right and left, for vainglory turns even humility, plainness, silence, and hidden prayer into occasions of pride.
252. 11.5Vainglory is like an onion: remove one layer and another appears.
253. 11.6Vainglory pursues even the hermit, using his own virtues as snares on the very road of perfection.
254. 11.7Unlike other vices, vainglory grows stronger when defeated, attacking its conquerors through pride in their victory.
255. 11.8Vainglory follows the monk into the desert and grows with age and virtue.
256. 11.9Other vices fight openly; vainglory hides among the virtues.
257. 11.10Hezekiah, after great miracles including the sun's return, was cast down by pride and restored only by humility.
258. 11.11Uzziah likewise fell through pride after his victories; prosperity is more dangerous than adversity.
259. 11.12Paul, Christ, and David all condemn seeking human glory.
260. 11.13Vainglory flatters beginners about their singing, looks, family, or the careers they supposedly gave up.
261. 11.14Vainglory stirs up a desire for ordination and daydreams of holy ministry and many conversions.
262. 11.15Such daydreams so absorb the soul that it neglects present duties and the brothers.
263. 11.16An elder at Scete overheard a monk alone in his cell preaching an imaginary sermon and dismissing imaginary catechumens.
264. 11.17The Egyptian elders openly describe the vices as if still suffering them, so that the young may recognize and forestall them.
265. 11.18The fathers taught that a monk must flee women and bishops, since both draw him from the quiet of his cell; Cassian admits he failed with his sister and his ordaining bishop.
266. 11.19Vainglory is overcome by never acting for human praise, avoiding singular practices, and remembering that works done for glory are lost and punished.
267. 12.1Pride, the eighth and last vice, is first in origin and attacks above all the perfect.
268. 12.2Pride has two kinds: spiritual pride against God, which tempts the perfect, and carnal pride against men, which tempts beginners.
269. 12.3Other vices destroy one virtue each; pride destroys them all, like a tyrant who seizes the citadel and razes the city.
270. 12.4Lucifer fell by pride, believing his glory came from his own nature and free will rather than God's grace.
271. 12.5Through the devil, pride passed to Adam, who lost God's gift by seeking divinity through his own will.
272. 12.6Pride is the beginning of all sin and attacks the strongest; even David, though humble, prayed for God's help against it.
273. 12.7God himself resists the proud, because pride, unlike other vices, is directed against God.
274. 12.8God heals pride by humility: Cassian contrasts the proud boasts of the devil and his agents with Christ's humble words.
275. 12.9Pride is escaped by attributing every advance in virtue to God's grace, as Scripture repeatedly teaches.
276. 12.10No human effort can reach perfection without God's mercy, since every good gift comes from above.
277. 12.11The penitent thief, David's forgiveness, and our calling show that salvation and perfection are God's gift, not earned by our labour.
278. 12.12Compared with eternal glory, the present life and its sorrows vanish like smoke.
279. 12.13The fathers teach that no one is cleansed from the vices unless he knows that his own effort cannot suffice and that purity is God's gift.
280. 12.14Perfection requires both human effort and God's grace; grace is given to those who labour, and God awaits even the first occasion of good will.
281. 12.15The truly holy fathers grew more aware of their sins as they grew purer, and hoped for salvation by God's mercy, not their works.
282. 12.16Even our efforts toward perfection depend on God's help, so we must not let pride empty them.
283. 12.17Since even Christ in his humanity said he did nothing of himself, we must confess our need of God's help in every step, praying with the Psalms.
284. 12.18We must thank God not only for creation, free will, baptism, and the law, but for his daily grace that protects, enlightens, draws, and redirects our will.
285. 12.19Humility before God, confessing our dependence on grace, is the simple faith of the fathers, learned by experience, not by philosophy.
286. 12.20A monk tormented by homosexual desire was told by an elder that God had allowed it because of a hidden blasphemy, which the monk then confessed.
287. 12.21Joash, after allowing himself to be worshipped, was handed over by God to shameful treatment by the Syrians, showing that pride is punished by shameful passions.
288. 12.22The proud soul is handed over to fleshly passions so that, humiliated, it may recognize its uncleanness and return to fervour.
289. 12.23Perfection comes only through true humility towards the brothers and towards God, depending on his help at every moment.
290. 12.24Spiritual pride attacks only the nearly perfect; Cassian now turns to the carnal pride that endangers beginners.
291. 12.25Carnal pride keeps a monk from humility and poverty, making him fear illness and prefer to live on his own means.
292. 12.26Such monks keep, retake, or acquire money, and build their whole life on a ruinous foundation.
293. 12.27The carnally proud monk cannot bear spiritual teaching, fidgets during conferences, takes everything as aimed at himself, and is either insolently merry or sullenly silent.
294. 12.28A young Gallic monk asked whether he had humbled himself only to be subject for ever; his abbot could only sigh and think of Christ, obedient unto death.
295. 12.29Cassian lists the outward signs of carnal pride: loud or bitter speech, mocking laughter, impatience, lack of love, disobedience, and trusting one's own judgment over the elders'.
296. 12.30The proud monk blames his brothers, seeks solitude or founds his own monastery, and becomes a worse teacher than he was a disciple.
297. 12.31The foundation of perfection is the fear of God and humility, which requires poverty; only on the humble does God's Spirit rest.
298. 12.32True humility towards the brothers requires renunciation of all possessions and unfeigned obedience, as one dead to the world and a fool for Christ.
299. 12.33Humility makes us bear injuries patiently, remembering Christ's sufferings and our approaching death, and confess that every virtue and even this understanding is God's gift.