Asceticism in the early church

Self-denial and ascetic discipline: renunciation, vigils, poverty, and the struggle against the passions.

Sentences of Sextus 71Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Restrain the body in all things, for from luxuries and pleasures you will not escape filthiness.
Sentences of Sextus 78Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Renounce the things of the body while you still can and as far as you can.
Sentences of Sextus 209Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Do not consider yourself faithful until you are free of the passions of the soul.
Sentence 75 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · It is most terrible to be a slave to passions. As many passions as the soul has, so many masters.
Sentence 78 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Renounce the things of the body as far as you are able.
Fragment 7 (Hypotyposes 5; on Gal 5:24)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century
Miscellanies 7.6.33Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement surveys reasons for avoiding certain meats (the Jewish ban on pork, the scapegoat, Greek and Egyptian practice) and allows that the one who knows might give up meat for discipline and to curb sexual desire.
To His Wife 1.6Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Many Christians live continently even within marriage, and even pagan priestesses keep virginity and widowhood for their demons; a Christian widow can surely do so for God.
Pistis Sophia 95Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 100Anonymous · 3rd century
Exhortation to Chastity 10Tertullian · ca. 208 · Widowhood is an opportunity for continence, which makes prayer and spiritual life clearer; if even marital intercourse dulls the Spirit, a second marriage does so still more.
Refutation of All Heresies 1.24.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Indian Brahmins live simply on fallen fruit and abstain from meat and cooked food.
Refutation of All Heresies 1.24.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Only those who conquer bodily passions, the Brahmins say, reach God.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.15Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Naassenes forbid marital intercourse, reading Attis's castration as passage to a sexless new creation.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.28.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Saturnilus said marriage and procreation come from Satan, and his followers abstained from meat; prophecies came partly from the world-making angels and partly from Satan.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.22Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Empedocles taught his followers to abstain from meat, as housing punished souls, and from sexual intercourse, which serves Strife.
Refutation of All Heresies 8.7.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Contents: the Encratites, whose teaching is not from Scripture.
Refutation of All Heresies 8.20.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Encratites, orthodox about God and Christ, abstain from meat and wine and forbid marriage, more like Cynics than Christians.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.18.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Essenes live in self-control and mutual love, abstain from marriage themselves without forbidding it, and adopt others' children.
Homilies on Exodus 11.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Before hearing the word of God, like Israel at Sinai, hearers must sanctify themselves and wash their garments, abstaining for a time even from what is lawful.
Homilies on Exodus 13.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The twisted linen is the flesh disciplined by abstinence, the goats' hair dead sin, the rams' skins dead fury; the wives' jewellery offered by the men is the obedient flesh's hearing, good works, and discernment, unlike the earrings given for the golden calf.
Homilies on Joshua 17.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Levites, whose inheritance is the Lord, figure the few who devote themselves to wisdom and teach the simpler believers; only Jesus, not Moses, gives them dwellings, as only he calls disciples to renounce everything.
Homilies on Numbers 25.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Eleazar speaks only to “men of valour,” those who strive in the contest of self-control and study of God’s word; in this life’s war the angels watch what spoils each brings back, and our dwelling hereafter will be assigned according to the work tested by fire.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.7Origen · ca. 240 · To “call on faithlessness” is to break our bad agreements with the world and the devil, as Judith broke her pact with Holofernes; to “call on misery” is to choose the narrow way of ascetic discipline, as those who renounce marriage do, and as Jeremiah lived unmarried.
On the Singleness of Clerics 21Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Clerics who cite the apostles to justify keeping women do not imitate their poverty, fasting, and sufferings, and presume to be their equals, against Christ's humility.
Against Celsus 7.7Origen · ca. 248 · The Hebrew prophets were chosen for their courageous, self-denying lives, suffering for the truth, and their prophecies of Christ come from God's Spirit, unlike the demonic oracles.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 93Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The disciples slept when Jesus left them, so we must pray that he never leave us; to “enter into temptation” is to be overcome by it, for whoever comes to Jesus is not overtaken by evils; “the spirit is willing, the flesh weak” describes the saints, whose flesh has been weakened and put to death, and who must the more fear a fall.
Commentary on Matthew 15.3Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen rejects literal self-castration, answering Sextus and Philo with the Law and with Paul, warning of its bodily harms, and arguing that Marcion’s refusal of allegory leaves him no consistent position.
Commentary on Matthew 15.25Origen · ca. 246–248 · Those who leave family and property for Christ’s name receive many times as much: brothers and sisters in faith, bishops and presbyters as parents, and, in the higher sense, heavenly kin and the dwellings of God’s city.
Life of Cyprian 2Anonymous · ca. 258–265 · From his conversion Cyprian embraced continence and sold his property for the poor, becoming perfect almost before he had been taught.
Vit. 7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ, John the Baptist, and the poor widow show that one should despise temporal goods, renounce the broad way, and serve the needy for an eternal reward.
Church History 2.16.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Alexandrian believers lived so ascetically that Philo wrote about their way of life.
Church History 2.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philo calls these ascetics Therapeutae, either as healers of souls or as pure worshippers of God.
Church History 2.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philo says they gave up their property and withdrew outside the cities to live apart.
Church History 2.23.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): James lived as a lifelong Nazirite, abstaining from wine, meat, oil, and baths.
Church History 4.29.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus (quoted): the Encratites rejected marriage, implicitly accusing the Creator of male and female, abstained from meat, and denied Adam's salvation.
Church History 6.3.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Origen sold his books for a small daily income and lived an austere life of study, fasting, and little sleep.
Church History 6.3.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · He literally kept Christ's commands about one coat, no shoes, and no anxiety for tomorrow.
Recognitions 3.62Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter teaches that only one who renounces worldly affairs and loves God can persevere in learning about him.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 10.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · Peter Apselamus, an ascetic, refused pleas to spare his youth and was burned on 11 January.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.8.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The church has two ways of life; the first, above nature, renounces marriage, children, and property for God’s service alone.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Ascetics live as if in heaven and serve as priests for all through pure doctrine, soul, and virtue.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.5.74Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The disciples, though unlearned, embraced an ascetic life of fasting, prayer, and purity.
Letter 5.3Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony warns against keeping only the form of godliness, and urges each to strip off attachment to matter and ask God for the invisible fire that cleanses.
Theophany 3.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 3.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Demonstration 6.5Aphrahat · 337-345
Canon 21Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · The synod's epilogue explains that it condemns not true asceticism but its prideful abuse, and affirms virginity, continence, marriage, rightly used wealth, the churches, and the church's traditions.
Letter to Dracontius 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 355 · Athanasius answers the claim that the episcopate leads to sin: bishops can be as ascetic as monks, and the crown depends on deeds, not on place.
Life of Antony 4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony learned a particular virtue from each ascetic he visited and sought to combine them all, winning the affection of his village.
Life of Antony 7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · After his first victory Antony intensified his discipline with vigils, fasting, and hard bedding, treating each day as a new beginning, after the example of Paul and Elijah.
Life of Antony 16Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony begins his address to the monks: having begun the ascetic life, they should never slacken, for a short life of toil buys an eternal kingdom.
Life of Antony 17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Renouncing possessions is a small price for the kingdom of heaven; the monks should acquire the virtues, which alone go with them after death.
Life of Antony 47Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · After the persecution and the martyrdom of Bishop Peter, Antony returned to his monastery and lived a life of daily “martyrdom of conscience” with severe fasting and austerity.
Life of Antony 93Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony kept his discipline and his health into extreme old age, and God made the hidden ascetic famous throughout the empire so that others might see the commandments can be kept.
Letter 10Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Using the image of a perfumed decoy dove, Basil sends a widow's son, newly given to the ascetic life, to draw his mother after him.
Letters 365, 366Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks the emperor Theodosius to build a bridge over the flooding river Halys, which cuts Cappadocia off from its food supplies; the second half of a letter to the monk Urbicius praises continence as the health of the soul, likening it to God, who desires nothing.
Homilies on the Psalms 29.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 30:7–12: God turns his face away to test us; true crying is for heavenly things; we should not pamper the flesh, which buries the mind; the Lord turns mourning into joy for those who lament their sins; and the glory that sings is the Spirit in the just.
Homilies on the Psalms 45.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 46:10–11 Basil teaches that God can be known only by those free from worldly cares and passions, contrasting good leisure for God with the Athenians' idle curiosity and the empty house of the parable; “I will be exalted” foretells the cross, and the repeated refrain is the believer's triumph in Christ, our peace.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's second rule: no one can serve God while bound to other things; the convert must first be cleansed, and nothing of this world may come before Christ.
Letter 371Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory rejoices that the deacon Evagrius is advancing in the ascetic life, and that through him he has gained a new friend.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Asceticism outside the church, of philosophers, magi, or heretics, is useless; vows of chastity and fasting are worthy only within the church, where the Spirit intercedes.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.8.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The hundredfold promised in this life is God himself dwelling and walking in us, which requires leaving the world while still alive.
Tractates on the Psalms 136.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'daughter of Babylon' is the flesh, born of confusion; blessed is he who repays her by subjecting her to the spirit and killing her vices.
Oration 8.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory apostrophizes Gorgonia's asceticism, her purity after baptism, and her victory over the legacy of Eve, and turns to the rewards God gave her in this life.
Oration 15.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Priests, mothers, and young people should imitate Eleazar, the mother, and the seven brothers, fighting the passions as their daily Antiochus.
Oration 37.20Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory reads Christ's three kinds of eunuchs figuratively: those good by natural aptitude, and those whose passions are cut away by teachers.
Oration 37.21Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Those who “made themselves eunuchs” are those who, without a teacher, cut out their passions by their own reason and choice; what matters is that the passions are cut away.
Oration 41.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory appeals to the ascetics who are sound on the Son but not on the Spirit to confess the Trinity as one Godhead or nature; he admires their life and would accept any loss to have them glorify the Trinity with him.
Homilies 18.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Panegyric on Gordius, a centurion of Caesarea: biblical praise rests on deeds, not homeland; in the persecution Gordius fled to the desert, then came down into the crowded stadium and declared himself a Christian.
Homilies 21.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The wise care first for the soul, accept bodily hardship with Paul's confidence, and give the body only what it needs.
Homilies 22.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Athletes endure everything for a perishable crown; we must labor for far greater prizes, caring for the soul and giving the body only what it needs, shunning luxury, finery, corrupting music and sensual pleasure.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Spouses may abstain by agreement for a time of prayer, as Nazirites abstained even from permitted things, but must then come together lest Satan tempt them.
On Virginity 6Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Elijah and John the Baptist, living apart from human life, food, comfort, and marriage, reached the greatness of their gifts; their example shows that one who seeks God must not divide his mind among many things.
On Virginity 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Like water gathered into one channel or forced up a pipe, the mind that self-control keeps from scattering among many desires rises toward the truth; marriage is the root of the pursuit of vain things.
On Virginity 21Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Since only the pure can approach God, one must wall oneself off from all sensual pleasure, especially the pleasures of food and drink, taking need, not pleasure, as the measure of eating.
On Virginity 22Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Self-control must avoid both excess and excessive severity; like a physician balancing the body’s elements or a charioteer managing his horses, the mind should keep the body fit for the soul’s service.
On Virginity 23Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The virgin life must be learned from a living, experienced teacher, as languages and medicine are; the young who go alone fall into pride, idleness, false visions, deadly fasting, or sham celibacy that brings scandal.
Letter 14.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome acknowledges the family ties that hold Heliodorus back but argues from Scripture that love for Christ must come first.
Letter 14.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · In a famous closing hymn to the desert, Jerome answers every fear of the ascetic life with the promises of Christ.
Letter 22.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome opens his treatise to the virgin Eustochium with Ps 45: the soul must forget its father's house to be the bride of Christ the King.
Letter 22.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome counsels Eustochium to keep ascetic companions, stay at home, fast, pray, and read Scripture, overcoming bodily desire with love for Christ.
Letter 22.28Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium against fraudulent male ascetics and worldly clergy who frequent the houses of rich women, describing one notorious example.
Letter 24.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Asella's life of fasting in a single cell and how, as a girl, she sold her necklace and put on dark clothing to dedicate herself to God.
Letter 24.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Asella's secluded life of work, prayer, and fasting, which she kept in health to the age of fifty.
Letter 44.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets Marcella's gifts of sackcloth, chairs, candles, cups, and fans as symbols of the ascetic life.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 16.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some Pharisees practiced long periods of continence.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Apostolics or Apotactics renounce property.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church has renunciation without despising marriage or property.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen’s asceticism damaged his health.
On Cain and Abel 1.24Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · In the mystical sense Abraham's heir is Christ; the soul turning to virtue chooses Jacob's way, and shepherding, like Abel's, means ruling one's own senses and passions.
Apostolic Canon 51Anonymous · ca. 380 · Abstaining from marriage, meat or wine out of abhorrence of creation is condemned.
On Widows, chapter 11Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose counsels widows not to remarry but says plainly that he does not forbid second marriages, only does not advise them and does not approve repeated ones, describing marriage as a mutual servitude from Rom 7:2 and 1 Cor 7, and warning against teachers who impose continence beyond people's strength.
Life of Macrina, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Macrina serves her widowed mother, draws her toward the ascetic life and wins back the proud young Basil to philosophy; Naucratius leaves a public career for solitude on the Iris.
Life of Macrina, part 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Naucratius dies suddenly while hunting; Macrina's steadfastness keeps their mother from grief, and mother and daughter take up a common life with their former maids, living like the angels.
Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas opens his sermon on vigils: God gave the night for rest, but as people sacrifice sleep for earthly gain, Christians should gladly keep vigils of prayer, hymns and readings.
Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas answers those who object to vigils: the lazy and sleepy should be ashamed, the old may keep vigil sitting, the sick should pray in bed and not disparage others.
Chapter 6Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas finds vigils in the New Testament: Anna, the shepherds, Christ’s parables and commands to watch, his own nights of prayer, and his words in Gethsemane.
Chapter 8Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas describes the benefits of vigils, which drive out fear and vice, strengthen chastity and wound the devil, and says night prayer is more effective than prayer by day.
Liber Orsiesii 46Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · The monks must not squander their Father's labours by returning to comfort and possessions, but wait on the Lord, who renews strength.
Book of Heresies 84.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Abstinents in Gaul and Spain separate married couples.
Eleven Tractates 2.43Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Saragossa's memorandum censured none of them; they teach that those who renounce all for God should not be hindered, while those who achieve less still have hope.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 25Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · The petitioners recount the persecution of their adherents at Trier and Rome, above all of the ascetic presbyter Macarius, who, arrested at a night vigil by Damasus's clergy and dragged over the stones, died of his wound in exile at Ostia.
Letter 27.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine praises Paulinus's letter, his renunciation of the world, and his wife Therasia, now living with him in spiritual partnership.
Letter 31.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine wants Paulinus and Therasia in Africa as a visible example, since their renunciation of great wealth fulfils gladly what the rich young man heard with sadness.
Letter 31.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the couple's renunciation is the glory of Christ, an example to men and women alike, which they should not hide.
Letter 121.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus asks Augustine to explain Colossians 2:21–23, which seems to attribute wisdom and humility to superstition and to join “not sparing the body” with “satisfaction of the flesh.”
Letter 157.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every Christian renounces his possessions either by giving them away or by being ready to lose them for Christ; those who renounce the world only in words fail when tested.
Letter 157.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine has himself embraced voluntary poverty and urges it on others, but without condemning Christians who live chastely in marriage and use their wealth well.
Letter 262.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Ecdicia that her husband, who had vowed continence with her, has fallen into adultery because she failed to treat him with conjugal obedience.
Soliloquies 1.14Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason tells Augustine that he will see God when nothing earthly delights him, reminds him how a night's thoughts of a woman's caresses showed that he is not yet healed, and Augustine, weeping, commits himself to God's care.
Homilies on Matthew 10.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John's ascetic life in the wilderness from childhood recalled Elijah and anticipated freedom from the curse; his hair garment taught detachment, unlike the vain Cynic philosophers; his belt was the dress of active saints; Christ praised his rejection of soft clothing.
Homilies on Matthew 55.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · After rebuking Peter, Christ teaches that his followers too must be ready to die, but without compulsion: following him means freely denying oneself, as one disowns a stranger, and not sparing the body in trials.
On Fleeing the World 3Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · The senses are windows through which death enters; one who would ascend should prefer mourning to pleasure.
On Fleeing the World 6Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · The Levites, who leave everything for God, are fugitives from the world; through Christ all believers share this calling.
On Fleeing the World 7Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · The priest’s true flight is renouncing family and world to serve God alone, as Christ and Elijah did.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.6.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul, disciplining his body, is the model of one condemning sin in the flesh.
Homily 12Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 5:5–7 Gregory reads the myrrh dripping from the bride's hands as voluntary death to sin through which the soul rises, the bridegroom's passing by as God always beyond the soul's grasp (as with Moses), and the watchmen's blows that remove her veil as the healing discipline of the Spirit and the angels, by which her longing for God is endlessly renewed.
Sermon 205.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lent's forty days signify the whole of this life, during which the Christian must hang on the cross of self-restraint, as Moses, Elijah, and Christ fasted forty days.
On Illustrious Men 2Jerome · 392–393 · James the Lord's brother, first bishop of Jerusalem: his letter, his holiness as told by Hegesippus, his martyrdom, and his appearance in the Gospel of the Hebrews.
Against Jovinianus 2.9Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites philosophers who withdrew from luxury to pursue wisdom, and concludes that no one can live in pleasures without being held by them.
Against Jovinianus 2.13Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Dicaearchus, Xenophon, and Chaeremon for the simple diet of the golden age, the Persians, the Spartans, and the Egyptian priests.
Against Jovinianus 2.14Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Jewish, Persian, Indian, Greek, and Cynic examples of abstinence, especially Antisthenes and Diogenes.
On Continence 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine begins by showing from Scripture that continence, whether in celibacy or in marriage, is a gift of God.
On Continence 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The 'door of continence' of Psalm 141:3 guards the mouth of the heart, not only the bodily mouth.
On Continence 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Bodily chastity is kept safe when continence guards the heart against consent, though in this life the struggle between flesh and spirit continues.
On Continence 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The works of the flesh in Galatians 5 are the enemies to be put to death, and continence, the last fruit of the Spirit, is the chief weapon.
On Continence 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Continence that springs from a false faith, from sin, or from injustice (such as refusing the marriage debt) is not the true continence that God gives.
On Continence 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · True continence, a gift from above, governs all desires opposed to wisdom, those of the mind as well as those of the body.
On Continence 29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Paul's command to 'put to death your members on earth' means that continence must put to death the lingering movements of desire by refusing consent and turning thought to things above.
On Christian Doctrine 1.24Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · No one truly hates his body; ascetic discipline rightly aims to subdue bad habits, not to destroy the body, as Paul's words on the flesh and spirit show.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 5.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus claims that his renunciation of family, property, and pleasure shows that he accepts the gospel better than his catholic questioner.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 5.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine points to catholic virgins, ascetics, and communities living in common, and insists that married and ordinary believers who serve the saints also belong to the kingdom.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 30.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus points to Catholic ascetics who abstain from meat and to the Lenten fast as practices that 1 Timothy 4, read as Catholics read it, would also condemn.
Letters 2.12Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Martin fulfilled a bloodless martyrdom through hardship, fasting, persecution, and care for others.
On the Good of Marriage 25Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Continence is a virtue of the soul that may exist as a disposition without being exercised, as with Job's patience and Timothy's abstinence from wine.
1 Corinthians 7:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Spouses may abstain by consent for prayer; continence sanctifies, as at Sinai and with the priestly bread.
The Institutes 1.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The girdle signifies readiness for work and the mortification of sexual desire.
The Institutes 3.8John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The 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.
The Institutes 5.12John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · As athletes must prove themselves in lesser games before the great contests, the monk must conquer lesser vices before the struggle against lust.
The Institutes 5.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Paul is the model athlete of Christ, who ran with his eyes on the prize, disciplined his body, and awaited the crown.
The Conferences 1.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Moses explains that every art has a goal and an end, as the farmer, merchant, and soldier show, and asks the visitors what the goal and end of the monk's life are.
The Conferences 1.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Fasting, vigils, reading, and poverty are only instruments of perfection; they serve purity of heart, which is love, and must never be kept at the cost of anger or contempt for a brother.
The Conferences 3.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The three renunciations, of possessions, of former vices, and of all visible things for the invisible, are figured in God's call to Abraham, in Ps 45, and in the three books of Solomon.
The Conferences 3.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The first renunciation is worthless without the second and third; like Israel longing for Egypt, monks who renounce outwardly but keep their vices gain nothing, as 1 Cor 13 shows.
The Conferences 3.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Outward possessions belong to another; our true possessions are our vices, and renouncing them leads to the third renunciation and to the promised land of purity of heart, which God alone shows, so that both the beginning and the completion of salvation are his gift.
The Conferences 4.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · In Gal 5:17 “flesh” and “spirit” mean contrary desires within one person, each pulling to an extreme: the flesh to comfort and pleasure, the spirit to limitless austerity.
The Conferences 12.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The struggle against the flesh is useful, as the sluggishness of eunuchs shows; bodily desires are overcome only when spiritual delights replace them, and then the monk knows by experience that God keeps him at his right hand.
The Conferences 13.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon argues that nothing concerning salvation, least of all chastity and its ascetic means, can be accomplished without God’s help, which gives both the desire and the power and opportunity to carry it out.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 8Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Honoratus is converted to the ascetic life, changing his dress and appearance; his father's opposition fails, for he loves God first.