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And while the Christian religion was rejoicing in these two orders of
monks though this system had begun by degrees to deteriorate, there arose
afterwards that disgusting and unfaithful kind of monks; or rather, that
baleful plant revived and sprang up again which when it first shot up in
the persons of Ananias and Sapphira in the early Church was cut off by the
severity of the Apostle Peter -- a kind which among monks has been for a
long while considered detestable and execrable, and which was adopted by no
one any more, so long as there remained stamped on the memory of the
faithful the dread of that very severe sentence, in which the blessed
Apostle not merely refused to allow the aforesaid originators of the novel
crime to be cured by penitence or any amends, but actually destroyed that
most dangerous germ by their speedy death. When then that precedent, which
was punished with Apostolical severity in the case of Ananias and Sapphira
had by degrees faded from the minds of some, owing to long carelessness and
forgetfulness from lapse of time, there arose the race of Sarabaites, who
owing to the fact that they have broken away from the congregations of the
coenobites and each look after their own affairs, are rightly named in the
Egyptian language Sarabaites, and these spring from the number of
those, whom we have mentioned, who wanted to imitate rather than truly to
aim at Evangelical perfection, urged thereto by rivalry or by the praises
of those who preferred the complete poverty of Christ to all manner of
riches. These then while in their feeble mind they make a pretence of the
greatest goodness and are forced by necessity to join this order, while
they are anxious to be reckoned by the name of monks without emulating
their pursuits, in no sort of way practise discipline, or are subject to
the will of the Elders, or, taught by their traditions, learn to govern
their own wills or take up and properly learn any rule of sound discretion;
but making their renunciation only as a public profession, i.e., before the
face of men, either continue in their homes devoted to the same occupations
as before, though dignified by this title, or building cells for themselves
and calling them monasteries remain in them perfectly free and their own
masters, never submitting to the precepts of the gospel, which forbid them
to be busied with any anxiety for the day's food, or troubles about
domestic matters: commands which those alone fulfil with no unbelieving
doubt, who have freed themselves from all the goods of this world and
subjected themselves to the superiors of the coenobia so that they cannot
admit that they are at all their own masters. But those who, as we said,
shirk the severity of the monastery, and live two or three together in
their cells, not satisfied to be under the charge and rule of an Abbot, but
arranging chiefly for this; viz., that they may get rid of the yoke of the
Elders and have liberty to carry out their wishes and go and wander where
they will, and do what they like, these men are more taken up both day and
night in daily business than those who live in the coenobia, but not with
the same faith and purpose. For these Sarabaites do it not to submit the
fruits of their labours to the will of the steward, but to procure money to
lay by. And see what a difference there is between them. For the others
think nothing of the morrow, and offer to God the most acceptable fruits of
their toil: while these extend their faithless anxiety not only to the
morrow, but even to the space of many years, and so fancy that God is
either false or impotent as He either could not or would not grant them the
promised supply of food and clothing. The one seek this in all their
prayers; viz., that they may gain akthmosu'nhn i.e., the deprivation of all
things, and lasting poverty: the other that they may secure a rich quantity
of all sorts of supplies. The one eagerly strive to go beyond the fixed
rule of daily work that whatever is not wanted for the sacred purposes of
the monastery, may be distributed at the will of the Abbot either among the
prisons, or in the guest-chamber or in the infirmary or to the poor; the
others that whatever the day's gorge leaves over, may be useful for
extravagant wants or else laid by through the sin of covetousness. Lastly,
if we grant that what has been collected by them with no good design, may
be disposed of in better ways than we have mentioned, yet not even thus do
they rise to the merits of goodness and perfection. For the others bring in
such returns to the monastery, and daily report to them, and continue in
such humility and subjection that they are deprived of their rights over
what they gain by their own efforts, just as they are of their rights over
themselves, as they constantly renew the fervour of their original act of
renunciation, while they daily deprive themselves of the fruits of their
labours: but these are puffed up by the fact that they are bestowing
something on the poor, and daily fall headlong into sin. The one party are
by patience and the strictness whereby they continue devoutly in the order
which they have once embraced, so as never to fulfil their own will,
crucified daily to this world and made living martyrs; the others are cast
down into hell by the lukewarmness of their purpose. These two sorts of
monks then vie with each other in almost equal numbers in this province;
but in other provinces, which the need of the Catholic faith compelled me
to visit, we have found that this third class of Sarabaites flourishes and
is almost the only one, since in the time of Lucius who was a Bishop of
Arian misbelief in the reign of Valens, while we carried alms to our
brethren; viz., those from Egypt and the Thebaid, who had been consigned to
the mines of Pontus and Armenia for their steadfastness in the Catholic
faith, though we found the system of coenobia in some cities few and far
between, yet we never made out that even the name of anchorites was heard
among them.
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