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their mutual friends had withdrawn, he took a book containing the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