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IN this coenobium then we found a very old man named John, whose words
and humility we think ought certainly not to be passed over in silence as
in them he excelled all the saints, as we know that he was especially
vigorous in this perfection, which though it is the mother of all virtues
and the surest foundation of the whole spiritual superstructure, yet is
altogether a stranger to our system. Wherefore it is no wonder that we
cannot attain to the height of those men, as we cannot stand the training
of the coenobium I will not say up to old age, but are scarcely content to
endure the yoke of subjection for a couple of years, and at once escape to
enjoy a dangerous liberty, while even for that short time we seem to be
subject to the rule of the Elder not according to any strict rule, but as
our free will directs. When then we had seen this old man in Abbot Paul's
coenobium, we were struck, first by his age and the grace with which the
man was endowed, and with looks fixed on the ground began to entreat him to
vouchsafe to explain to us why he had forsaken the freedom of the desert
and that exalted profession, in which his fame and celebrity had raised him
above others who had adopted the same life, and why he had chosen to enter
under the yoke of the coenobium. He said that as he was unequal to the
system of the anchorites and unworthy of the heights of such perfection, he
had gone back to the infant school, that he might learn to carry out the
lessons taught there, according as the life demanded. And when our
entreaties were not satisfied and we refused to take this humble answer, at
last he began as follows.
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