CHAPTER LXXI. -- THE BROTHER WHO IS WITH THE WRITER
[1] And now, when I have said a few words about the brother who has been with me from youth until this day, I will end my tale. I know that for a long time he has not eaten from desire nor fasted from desire. I consider that he has conquered desire of riches, the greatest part of vainglory. He is satisfied with what he has, he does not deck himself out with clothes, when despised he gives thanks, he runs risks for his close friends, he has engaged in contests with demons a thousand times and more; so that one day a demon tried to make an agreement with him and said: "Agree to sin just once, and whatever woman you mention to me in the world I will bring her to you." [2] And again on another occasion, after buffeting him for fourteen nights, as he told me, and dragging him by the feet |179 in the night he conversed with him audibly: "Cease worshipping Christ and I will not come near you." But he answered and said: "This is why I worship Him and will glorify Him infinitely and adore Him, because you are utterly distasteful to me when I am thus engaged." He has visited 106 cities and stayed in most of them, but by God's mercy he has had nothing to do with a woman, not even in a dream, except for this contest. [3] I know that he received from an angel on three occasions the food he needed. One day, being in the inner desert and having not even a crumb, he found three loaves in his sheepskin still warm. Another time he found wine and loaves. Yet another time I learned that some one said this to him: "You are fainting; go then and receive from these men food and oil." So he went to the man to whom this man had sent him and said: "Are you so-and-so?" And he said: "Yes; some one has ordered you to receive thirty bushels of corn and twelve pints of oil." On behalf "of such a one I will glory," whoever he was. I have known him often weep over men distressed by dire poverty, and he gave them all that he had except his flesh. I have known him also weep over one who had fallen into sin, and by his tears he led the fallen one to repentance. He once assured me on oath: "I prayed God that I might incite no man, especially the rich and wicked, to give me anything for my needs."
[5] But for me it is enough to have been counted worthy of mentioning all these things which I have committed to writing. For it was not without God that your thought was stirred up to enjoin the writing of this book and the committal to writing of the lives of these |180 saints. But you at least, most faithful servant of God, reading them with pleasure and accepting their lives and toils and so great endurance as a fitting demonstration of the resurrection, follow them eagerly, nourished with good hope, seeing the days in front of you to be shorter than those behind. [6] Pray for me, keeping yourself such as I knew you from the consulate of Tatian until this day and such as I found you when you had been chosen to be prefect of the most religious bedchamber. For a man whom such honour accompanied by riches and such power have not made incapable of the fear of God, such a one reposes on that Christ Who was told by the devil: "All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." |181
[Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]
1. Butler prints this Preface, but considers it spurious.
2. Butler marks the text here corrupt, but the meaning is clear.
3. This accords with the evidence of the book.
4. Literally, "engraved" (as on a statue).
5. Or, "situation of the monastery" ( to_n to&pon th~j monh~j ).
6. A genuine letter sent by Palladius with his book. Lausus was praepositus (i.e. sacri cubiculi ) at the court of Theodosius II. Cf. J. S. Reid in Cambridge Mediaeval History, Vol. I, ch. 2. (This officer) "grew in importance, as measured by dignity and precedence, until in the time of Theodosius the Great it was one of four high offices which conferred on their holders membership of the Imperial Council. . . . Some duties fell to him which are hardly suggested by his title. He was in control of the emperor's select and intimate bodyguard, which bore the name of silentiarii, thirty in number, with three decuriones for officers. Curiously, he superintended one division of the vast imperial domains, that considerable portion of them which lay within the province of Cappadocia."
7. Alternative reading, printed by Butler in the text, but rejected in a supplementary note: "from which they will get no benefit."
8. Mt. xi. 29.
9. Modelled on the Prologue of St. Luke's Gospel.
10. Lk. i. 3. The long and involved sentence of the original has been retained in order to make the allusion plain.
11. Honorific titles of this kind were very common in the Eastern Empire, from which they have descended to the Eastern Church of to-day.
12. From this point the long and involved sentence of the original ----39 lines in Butler's text before a full stop occurs----has been broken up.
13. I.e. 419-420.
14. See Ch. XXXII.
15. Phil. i. 23.
16. Prov. xxiv. 27.
17. Prov. xxxi. 8.
18. Ecclus. viii. 9.
19. A paraphrase. The Greek is: ou) perie/rgw| xrhsa&menoj logismw~| , "having not used elaborate calculations " (on the contrary, throwing prudence to the winds and undertaking long and arduous journeys). But perhaps it means: "not out of idle curiosity."
20. The Roman Empire. But to Palladius this would mean the Eastern Empire, so that "Greeks" would represent his meaning. It actually occurs in the Syriac, see Wallis Budge, I. 83. The Turkish Empire to-day, heir of the (Eastern) Roman Empire, is called Rum.
21. Literally "inscribing on a pillar."
22. Gal. i. 18.
23. Mt. xviii. 24.
24. i0diopragmosu&nh| .
25. The Stoic virtue of a)pa&qeia naturally became an ideal for the philosophers of the desert, though Palladius of course interpreted it in a Christian sense. See Butler I. 176. A satisfactory English equivalent is difficult to find. Butler renders by "impassivity"; perhaps "detachment" would be better.
26. The play on words---- filopragmosu&naj, polupragmosu&nai, kakopragmosu&nai, kalopragmosu&nhn, i0diopragmosu&nhj ----can hardly be represented in English.
27. St. Basil (c. 365) contemplates permanent vows, but they were evidently not generally accepted when Palladius wrote. See Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 107 f., for a full discussion.
28. Since Bp. Paget's famous essay "On Accidie" in The Spirit of Discipline the word, which is as old as Chaucer, has been rehabilitated in English. It signifies a state of spiritual torpor and gloom. It was a special temptation of the monks and of all who had or still have few outward distractions and are thrown largely on their own mental resources.
29. I Tim. i. 9.
30. See Butler's note ad loc. which incorporates a communication from Dr. Henry Jackson, who concludes that "Pythagoras and Diogenes were total abstainers, but Plato a moderate drinker."
31. Mk. ii. 18.
32. Mt. ix. 11 (Lk. v. 30).
33. Mt. xxi. 32 and xi. 18, 19.
34. Rom. xiv. 23.
35. Mt. vii. 16.
36. Gal. v. 22.
37. 1 Cor. ix. 25.
38. The holy men are the window, through which the light shines. As you stand near a window to read a book with small type, so Lausus by frequenting the company of the saints will see clearly into his own life. But the text is doubtful.
39. Ecclus. xix. 30.
40. Palladius mentions three monks named Isidore. Besides this one, there is the priest of Scete (XIX) and the bishop of Hermopolis Parva (XLVI). See Butler's note; and D. C. B. for other persons of the same name. See also note on X. 2. (For this Isidore cf. Socr. VI. 9, Soz. VIII. 2, 12 f.).
41. I . e. 388. But see Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de l'Eglise, II. 610.
42. The phrase is taken from Heb. xi. 32.
43. The visit with Athanasius would be in 340; for the difficulties of the other visit see Butler II. 185.
44. The Dorotheus story is made into a separate chapter for the convenience of readers, but there is no break in the original.
45. See Soz. VI. 29 for the same story. Another Dorotheus is mentioned in chap. XXX
46. h]n ga&r au)tou~ h( di/aita au)xmw&dhj kai\ chrota&th .
47. Omitting le/gontej , as suggested by Turner.
48. He had made the sign of the cross over his food and drink, according to custom.
49. Eusebius describes the death of Potamiaena in the persecution of Severus, 202-3 (H. E. VI. 5). She comes at the end of a list of martyrs of the school of Origen. Evidently both accounts have the same person in view, and Palladius or his authority must have been mistaken as to the date.
50. tou_j kairou&j ( i. e. "the state of affairs," "government"). An alternative reading, tou_j Qeou&j , is clearly a later emendation.
51. According to Jerome ( de vir. illust. 109) Didymus was an all-round scholar of great ability. Among his books were many commentaries and a treatise on the Holy Spirit which Jerome translated into Latin. Cf. Socr. IV. 25, Soz. III. 15, Theod. H.E. IV. 26.
52. a!cioi th~j gh~j tw~n prae/wn . The reference is to Mt. v. 5, maka&rioi oi( praei=j o#ti au)toi\ klhronomh&sousi th_n gh~n .
53. He learned to read with his fingers from raised type, according to Sozomen.
54. Ps. cxlv. (cxlvi.) 8, LXX version.
55. Soz. VI. 2 also has this story. See Theod. III. 24 for a similar story.
56. sxhmati/sasa . Lucot sees here a reference to the monastic habit ( sxh~ma ). Later there were two habits, the Little and Great or Angelic. It would be appropriate for Alexandra to assume the latter on her deathbed, as is frequently done to-day on Mount Athos. However, the distinction between the two habits is not found before Theodore of Studium (8th century), unless John the Faster's (6th cent.) reference is to the same thing. See Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 135, 138 and N. F. Robinson, Monasticism in the Orthodox Churches, p. 52.
57. Palladius here slips into oratio recta.
58. See XLVI. and LIV. Melania is adopted in this edition as the best-known form, but there is good evidence for the diminutive Melanium (cf. Eustochium); see Butler II. 222 and Turner.
59. Here almost = "boredom."
60. The text is doubtful here.
61. 1 Cor. vi. 9.
62. Or, as we might say, "not taking his soul seriously." The rendering given is not English, but is retained in order to keep the reference to the psalm quoted below.
63. Ps. xxiii. (xxiv.), 3, 4.
64. Mentioned also in Cassian, Coll. XIV. 4, as presiding over the guest-house at Alexandria; not to be identified with the other Macarii of his book, see XV., XVII., XVIIL, XXI. and a careful note (no. 26) in Butler.
65. u(a&kinqoi
66. Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Wundererzählungen, p. 77, derives the above story from the second episode of the Acts of Thomas, in which the apostle receives money from the king with which to build him a palace, spends it on the poor, and so builds him a palace in heaven. The motive is similar in the two stories, but it is simpler to suppose that such stories were known to Macarius and prompted his action.
67. The Wady Natron is some sixty miles south of Alexandria. The actual Mount Nitria overlooked the valley. On Nitria see Butler I. 270-275, II. 187-190, and Duchesne, Histoire Ancienne de l'Église, II. 492 f. Cf. Hist. Mon. XXIII.
68. The Mareotic Lake. Palladius exaggerates its size greatly.
69. See XLVI. 2; Soz. III. 14, VI. 30.
70. See XXI. 1, XXII. 1, XLVII. 1.
71. See XLVI. 2, and D.C.B. for the various monks of this name.
72. Lit, "in which." The church may have been built round the trees; instances of this are not unknown.
73. A reading, rejected by Butler, defines this as the sixth hour.
74. The Office was recited separately in each settlement of monks. Palladius has said above that the settlement might consist of one monk, two monks, or a number.
75. For the observance of Saturday see Duchesne, Christian Worship, pp. 230 f.
76. dika&zei , apparently = hear confessions. "Is this a survival of some primitive practice?" (Butler II. 263).
77. See next chapter. For modern parallels to Antony's vision cf. Gurney, Phantasms of the Living.
78. See Ch. XXXII.
79. I. e. superior.
80. Not to be confused with Ammonius, one of the four Tall Brethren, who is mentioned in Ch. XI. For this Amoun cf. Athanasius, Vit. Ant. 60, Hist. Mon. XXIX., Socr. IV. 23, Soz. I. 14.
81. For the crown at weddings see Cant. iii. 11, Isa. lxi. 10, Ezek. xvi. 12. Tertullian objects to it as a heathen practice, de Cor. 13. Crowning forms an important feature of the marriage ceremonial in the Eastern Church to-day. Cf. Bliss, The Religions of Modern Syria and Palestine, p. 148: "The priest then takes a wreath of flowers, called 'the crown,' and touches the man's head, saying the words: 'The servant of God, M., is crowned for the servant of God, N., in the name, etc.' Then touching the woman's head with the same crown, he says the words a second time; finally, the crown is placed on the man's head while the formula is said for the third time. Then follows the crowning of the woman 'for the man' in a precisely similar way. Then the priest, stretching out his crossed arms towards the heads of the pair, announces the blessing of the crowns three times: 'May the Lord our God crown them with glory and honour.' "
82. Reading koimh&santaj . Butler gives this in the text, but iii his supplementary note prefers koimh&santej .
83. e0k prosw&pou , "from the person of."
84. du&o qo&louj kelli/wn . The qo&loj was a rounded and vaulted chamber. Cf. the bee-hive cells of the Celtic monks.
85. Vit. Ant. 60.
86. h( a!nqrwpoj tou~ qeou~ , "female man of God." For Melania see Ch. XLVI.
87. See Soz. VIII. 12 for their history.
88. "Doubtless " the bishop of Hermopolis mentioned in XLVI. (Lucot), Butler, II. 185, finds it impossible to decide who this Isidore is.
89. Mk. xii. 42, Lk. xxi. 2.
90. 2 Thess. iii. 8.
91. See Ch. XXXIX.
92. "His three brothers and." These words are omitted in some MSS., probably owing to anti-Origenistic feeling.
93. Bishop of Alexandria, 381-5. See Socr. IV. 23 for another version of the story. Cf. Soz. VI. 30.
94. Lev. xxi. 17f.
95. This paragraph is not in the best MSS. The text is reconstructed by Butler.
96. Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
97. For holy oil cf. XVIII. 11, 22.
98. See X. 1.
99. See Ch. XXXVIII.
100. Papias in his fourth book told a similar story of Judas Iscariot. See Lightfoot-Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers, p. 523.
101. a!skhsin grafikh&n . Writing was already recognized as an ascetic exercise.
102. Spanodro&moj , i.e. he took his goods to Spain.
103. Reading kat' a!llou with Turner.
104. The Syriac version (Budge) gives the sense accurately; "One man made manifest the works of Abraham by his hospitality, and the other the self-denial of Elijah."
105. Luke xviii. 22; cf. ix. 23, xiv. 27.
106. Nothing else is known about him, though Soz. VI. 29 seems to confuse him with Macarius of Alexandria: see Ch. XVIII.
107. See Ch. VII.
108. Cf. Sulpitius Severus, Dial . III. 8, where St. Martin blows away a demon that is sitting behind the back of Avitianus. "'Exsufflans," says the author, apologizing for the use of a word which is hardly Latin.
109. a)khdia~n ("to feel accidie ").
110. Lit. the sabbath. Cf. Socr. V. 22: "For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious assemblies on the sabbath, but do not partake of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general: for having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings they partake of the mysteries." Cf. Soz. VII. 19. The evidence of these historians leads us to the conclusion that an agape combined with the Eucharist is intended in the present passage. Fora recent discussion see art. "Agape" in E. R. E., by Bp. Maclean, who quotes the Acts of Pionius († 250 A.D.) for a Saturday agape.
The remarkable phrase in the text, "this brother's agape," seems to point to one brother being responsible for providing the food at the agape.
111. I.e. of mercy; cf. Lk. xiii. 15, xiv. 5.
112. Lived 300-390. The Homilies and Epistles attributed to Macarius are apparently his work. Cf. Hist. Mon. XXVIII., Soz. III. 14.
113. Ps. v. 6 (7).
114. I.e. a Greek.
115. Ps. xc. (xci.) 10.
116. 2 Kings v. 27.
117. e0leuqe/raj gunaiko&j , a free woman, or, perhaps better, a woman of good position.
118. presbute/rouj . ' Possibly = elders, in a secular sense, as Budge interprets the Syriac. On much of the land of Egypt the cultivators formed a corporation, separate for each village, which was responsible to the Government. presbut&teroi were at their head, and they had a secretary, grammateu&j . See Mitteis-Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, I. 1. 275 f.
119. Holy water; cf. holy oil in XII. 1, XVIII. 11, 22.
120. kiliki/sion u#datoj . Butler marks the word as of uncertain meaning.
121. See Hist. Mon. XXX., Soz. III. 14.
122. Palladius went to Cellia in 390 or 391: Butler, II. 245.
123. "Only one pound of bread each day" (Syriac).
124. boukkella~ton , a hard biscuit used by soldiers.
125. The text is doubtful, but this is clearly the meaning.
126. "The narrow opening of the jar took toll of the handful of bread that had come up so far " (Turner).
127. For the legendary history of these magicians see the commentaries on 2 Tim. iii. 8 and Schürer, History of the Jewish People, II. iii. 150.
128. Possibly an allusion to Mt. xi. 7, "a reed shaken with the wind."
129. Read w(j e0p' o)nei/rwn in place of w(j e)pi\ i(ere/wn of Butler's text.
130. Cf. XII. 1, XVIII. 22.
131. Butler concludes that Macarius was aged 40-45 at the time, so that he could not be termed old.
132. The first or head monastery where Pachomius lived was now Pabau, not Tabennisi. In XXXII. 8, Palladius makes the number 1300.
133. Lit. "him."
134. Note that Macarius, though not a bishop, makes absolution, administered by imposition of hands, and in this case conferring bodily as well as spiritual renewal, conditional on the sinful priest ceasing to exercise his priestly functions.
135. Reading e0rusipe/latoj , as suggested by Butler. The pa~j p(usipe/lantoj of the text is evidently corrupt.
136. The meaning is uncertain. Sophocles in his Lexicon suggests = kosmh&thj , in the sense of a sweeper of a monastery.
137. Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
138. Cf. Mt. xvii. 17.
139. Cf. Lk. xviii. 43.
140. Cf. the story of St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio.
141. Spitting was probably as common in Mediterranean lands as it is now, and to refrain from it seems to have been a mark of asceticism.
142. The monks guard the walls, the rest of the Church carry on their avocations in the city. Cf. Hist. Mon. prol. 10. "There is no village or city in Egypt and the Thebaid, which is not surrounded by monasteries as if by walls, and the inhabitants are supported by their prayers as if resting on God."
143. Cf. Soz. VI. 29. Butler, II. 197, distinguishes between the various monks of this name. Moses the Robber is the Moses whose sayings are recorded in the Apophthegmata,
144. Butler says: "I am unable to illustrate or explain this curious piece of demonology." But perhaps it is only an unusual way of referring to the rest of the band, in whom the demon was, as it were, incarnate.
145. This Isidore is omitted in D. C. B. See I. 1, X. 2, XLVI. 2, and Butler, II. 185.
146. Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 9.
147. See Butler, II. 177. This Paul is identified in one MS. with Paul the Simple of Ch. XXII. Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
148. The fold in his garment made by the girdle.
149. The earliest example of the practice now known as the Rosary.
150. See Ch. XVIII. He was so called "because he was a citizen and was of Alexandrian origin," Soz. III. 14. That politiko&j = Alexandrian is striking testimony to the position of Alexandria in relation to the rest of Egypt.
151. In his note on this passage (II. 198) Butler collects the evidence for the observance of Saturday and Sunday in Egypt. He concludes that there was "a practical co-ordination of the Saturday and Sunday."
152. Cf. Athanasius, Vit. Ant. 12, where Antony goes to the mountain, 49 and 50, where he withdraws to a high mountain, three days and three nights away, and 91: "but he . . . having bidden farewell to the monks in the outer mountain, entered the inner mountain, where he was accustomed to abide." The outer mountain, at Pispir near the Nile, is here meant.
153. Just south of Cairo; cf. I Peter v. 13, which conceivably refers to the Egyptian Babylon.
154. I.e. Heracleopolis.
155. sxolastiko&j . The word is also used in the specialized sense of ' advocate."
156. e0k tw~n e0gkukli/wn paideuma&twn , the general education of the Greek before he specialized on professional studies.
157. Reading pro_j sumpa&qeian with one MS. Butler's text, pro_j somfora&n ( tw~n e0ntugxano&ntwn ) is difficult.
158. The phrasing is reminiscent of Lk. x. 34.
159. sxa&sta . Butler marks as corrupt or of uncertain meaning; Lucot renders "assassin."
160. Butler prefers this to ''thirtieth," the other reading, since Greek custom, ancient and modern, is to celebrate the departed on the fortieth day. Cf. XXXIII. 4.
161. It looks as if this vision was suggested by some picture with which Antony was familiar. Dr. Wallis Budge writes to me as follows: "The symbolism is certainly Egyptian. The god referred to is probably that which we see in the vignettes of the seventeenth chapter of the Book of the Dead standing with his body raised to heaven by the side of the Lake of Maat, wherein souls were tested. The Copts made it the Lake of damned souls. In that Michael used to dip a wing, and all the souls who could cling to it escaped hell. The hawk is the usual bird symbol for the soul." Cf. 3 Baruch x. 1 f. "And when I had learned all these things from the Archangel, he took and led me into a fourth heaven. And I saw a monotonous plain, and in the middle of it a pool of water. And there were in it multitudes of birds of all kinds, but not like those here on earth. . . . The plain ... is the place where the souls of the righteous come;" also Sanhedrin 92b . "And the soul may say: The body has sinned; for since I am separated from it I fly in the air like a bird."
162. Cf. Hist. Mon. XXXI, Soz. I. 13. Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Wundererzählungen, pp. 59-61, discusses this story. Paul the Simple is to be distinguished from Paul the Hermit, whose life Jerome wrote, and who was, according to Jer., Ep. 22, the originator of the monastic life.
163. e0c a)grou~ . Cf. Mk. xv. 21, Simon the Cyrenian coming a)p' a)grou~ .
164. Greek, au)tou&j .
165. mona&j . Cf. the meaning sometimes given to monai/ in Jn. xiv. 2, "In My Father's house are many stopping-places (on the road to perfection)."
166. o)rgui/aj dekape/nte .
167. tau&thn e0pagagw_n th_n sh~yin , lit. "having brought this nausea on him." So Butler, who however is not certain of the meaning.
168. Lit. " wrinkled," dia_ to_ e)rrutidw~sqai .
169. Dan. iii.
170. Prov. xii. 17 (LXX).
171. Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
172. Ps. ciii. (civ.) 20.
173. The rest of the sentence is: kai\ e0pi\ tosou~to&n me keki/nhken w(j omi/sai me suggene/sqai au)th~| .
174. toi~j gennhtikoi=j mori/oij .
175. toi~j mori/oij .
176. Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
177. The country between Egypt and Cyrenaica.
178. Stephen assumes purgatorial pains even for the righteous.
179. eu)logi/a is used specially of pain bénit, and in a wider sense of religious gifts, such as a monk gives or receives.
180. This proverb, which goes back to Hippocrates, is quoted by several Fathers,
181. Eccl. vii. 16, 7 (LXX).
182. Cf. Cassian, Coll. II. 5, where a monk called Heron is mentioned. It is not certain that they are to be identified.
183. Mt. xxiii. 9.
184. I . e., probably, from Cellia.
185. Ps. cxviii. (cxix.).
186. "The Ladder."
187. kiliki/sia . See XVII. 11.
188. Cf. XVII. 9, where a five weeks' absence is enough to call down punishment.
189. The translation is approximate only; the text is quite uncertain.
190. mhdeni\ mhde\n o(milou~nta .
191. Prov. xi. 14 (LXX).
192. Kata_ skhnh_n a)nqrwpi/nhn , lit. on a human theatre or stage.
193. I. e . guardian angel.
194. "We cannot be certain whether the Athribé here mentioned was Athribis in the Delta, or Atripé, also called Athribis, near Panopolis. But in all probability it was the latter. Atripé was on the west bank of the Nile nearly opposite to Panopolis (Akhmim), at 26° 30' N. Latitude. Here was Schenoudi's great White Monastery, the ruins of which are still standing. Schenoudi established also a convent of nuns at Atripé, and the story in the text may possibly refer to this convent" (Butler).
195. mi/an para_ mi/an . So Turner, who rejects Butler's rendering "once a day."
196. See Mitteis-Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde , I. i. 273, for the different categories of land, which was classified according as it got an excessive, normal, or deficient supply of flood water.
197. presbute/rouj . See note on XVII. 6. It can hardly mean priests here, though Lucot so translates.
198. Near Denderah on the Nile. See Introduction, p. 23, and Ladeuze, Etude sur le Cénobitisme pakhomien, passim. The error that Tabennisi was an island goes back to some MSS. of Sozomen, III. 14, which have Tabe/nnh nh~soj .
199. He was with Palaemon at the time.
200. Ladeuze considers the Greek Vita Pachomii the source of the other versions, and the Rule in its various recensions to be inferior in authority to the Lives. The angel here seems to him legendary, since he is not mentioned in the Lives (p. 257). But cf. Gennadius, de vir. illus., 7.
201. It is clear from the Lives that the brethren lived in houses, within which each had a separate cell: Ladeuze, p. 263 f.
202. Pachomius himself observed neither the sleeping nor clothing regulations as given here, Ladeuze, p. 264. See Cassian, Inst. Book I. for the dress of the Egyptian monks.
203. The lebitw&n was a sleeveless garment, akin to or identical with the kol&bion .
204. mhlwth_n ai0gei/an ei0rgasme/nhn .
205. koukou&lion . "Un très court mantelet " (Ladeuze). A hood was attached, for it was used to cover the head at meals: see below.
206. ta&gmata .
207. Ladeuze, pp. 264 ff., throws doubt on this classification. It is derived from the Greek alphabet, of which Pachomius was probably ignorant. There is no trace of it in Jerome's Latin version of the Rules. Jerome indeed tells of a special alphabet used by Pachomius in his correspondence with the superiors of the monasteries; but these signs stood for other things besides the classes of monks. "Peut-être est-ce trompé par une mauvaise interpretation de ces lettres de Pakhôme et des supérieurs de ses couvents, que Pallade, superficiellement renseigné d'ailleurs sur les moines de Tabennisi, a inventé la règle que nous avons examinée."
Butler is not convinced by Ladeuze's depreciation of Palladius' version of the Rules (II. 206), and in the Cambridge Medieval History, I. 524 (1911), speaks of it as "probably the most authentic epitome."
208. To exclude professional wanderers, gyrovagi.
In the Lives Pachomius receives visitors from other forms of monasticism freely, Ladeuze, p. 264.
209. No trace of this in the Lives or Jerome: Ladeuze, p. 281.
210. See Butler, II., p. 207 f., for a discussion of these prayers. Palladius' version conflicts with Cassian's.
211. Cf. the Benedictine Rule, which was intended only to be "a little rule for beginners," minima inchoationis regula.
212. Cassian, Inst., IV. I, says more than 5000; Jerome, in prologue to the Latin version of the Rule, 50,000.
213. Cf. XVIII. 13, where the number is given as 1400. The monastery where Pachomius dwelt was Pabau, not Tabennisi; Palladius is in error.
214. The passages in square brackets are apparently genuine, though omitted in some MSS.
215. George Herbert's Country Parson keeps pigs for the same reason ( Priest to the Temple, Ch. X.).
216. In point of fact, says Ladeuze (p. 298 f.), they ate together twice a day at the same time.
217. There were three Tabennesiot nunneries; Butler is inclined to identify this one with Tismenae, where there was a monastery of Pachomian monks, mentioned in the Vita Pachomii.
218. Pachomius wrote out the rules and sent them to his sister in the nunnery. At the head of the nunneries Pachomius, and later Theodore, placed an aged and discreet monk to instruct the women and explain the Scripture to them. He was aided by other monks for the services, etc. Ladeuze, p. 303. Cf. Gennadius, de vir. illus. 7: Pachomius scripsit regulam utrique generi monachorum aptam.
219. See Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 104 f,, for a similar arrangement in Cappadocia and Pontus.
220. So no one else was available.
221. They would make the men's clothes, as in the Basilian double monasteries: see Clarke, op. cit. p. 105.
222. Cf. XXI. 15.
223. I Cor. iii. 18.
224. On the shores of the Red Sea. Piteroum may perhaps be identical with Pityrion the disciple of Antony, mentioned in Hist. Mon. XVII.
225. Reitzenstein, Hell. Wundererz., p. 77, says this story is ascribed to Sarapion in the Syriac Life of Sarapion. See XXXVII. 5, which speaks of the continual wanderings of Sarapion.
226. The senior monks who were responsible for the discipline of the nuns.
227. salo&j . "As a title it was bestowed upon certain holy men who feigned idiocy for Christ's sake, the most distinguished of whom was Simeon the Fool" (Sophocles).
228. a)mma~j , the feminine equivalent of a)bba~j .
229. . Otherwise called St. John of Egypt. Cf. Hist. Mon. I.; Cassian, Inst. IV. 23-26; Coll. I. 21, XXIV. 26. Lycopolis is the modern Asyut,
230. Cf. a characteristic passage in Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XXVII.: "Before he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover the will of heaven; and as the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles and the knowledge of futurity . . . The accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply."
231. Or "consoling."
232. Butler suggests that Palladius knew Coptic, but not Sahidic, the dialect of Upper Egypt.
233. The h(ge/mwn of the Thebaid, according to Diocletian's arrangements, was responsible to the e1parxoj of Alexandria, the civil head of the country. See Mitteis-Wilcken, I. i. 73.
234. See Butler, I. 296.
235. Lk. v. 31.
236. Lk. ix. 12.
237. th~j u(pe\r e0me\ xeirotoni/aj . Or perhaps only = "laying of hands upon me."
238. Chrysostom.
239. Half-way between Memphis and Alexandria.
240. I. e. the traditional site of the appearance of the angels to the shepherds.
241. Palladius' unfavourable opinion of Jerome was reciprocated: see Butler, I. 173 f., and II. 213.
242. Perhaps the most interesting of all Palladius' tales. See Butler, II. 214 f. Abbé Nau has shown that Sarapion, not Paphnutius, converted the famous courtesan Thais. Now the tombs of Sarapion and Thais have been discovered side by side at Antinoë: see Archaeological Report (1900-1901) of the Egypt Exploration Fund, p. 77. The bodies lie in the Musée Guimet at Paris and are probably those of the famous couple.
Reitzenstein, Hell. Wundererz., pp. 64 f., says that the whole story is impossible in its present connexion. An exaggerated modesty characterizes the Egyptian monks, and this is an old Cynic tale put into a Christian setting. Possibly he is right, but he does not seem to allow sufficiently for the fact that "extremes meet." Butler's words are worth quoting: "I had looked upon Palladius' account of Sarapion's life and travels as extravagant and impossible, until a little time ago I met a Hindu Renunciant, a well-educated high-caste Brahmin, who on a religions mission travelled from India to Europe clad in what may be described as pyjamas and a brown dressing gown, with shoes and skull-cap, carrying no money nor anything besides the clothes he wore and an umbrella: he arrived in London with no money, no luggage, no friends, no introductions; yet he managed to effect the purpose of his journey, and said he had no doubt he would get back to India somehow. What Palladius tells of Sarapion's adventures is hardly more wonderful than this."
243. labw&n tina sumpai/kthn a)skhth&n . Reitzenstein finds this suspicious and a sign that the story has been borrowed from an older collection. This female companion incomprehensibly disappears; she is out of place here, but would be quite in place as a subintroducta of an earlier century. Krottenthaler echoes Reitzenstein. It is sufficient to remark that sumpai/ktria and a)skh&tria are the feminine forms.
244. Cf. XXXIV. 4.
245. Reading su&mmaxon with a number of MSS. sunh&goton of Butler's text is difficult to translate.
246. tribwnofo&roi te kai\ birrofo&roi . Syriac, "the free men and the soldiers." The bi/rroj was a coarse outer garment. Lucot (on LXIII. 2) quotes Herwerden, who translates it sagum, a garment worn by servants, also by soldiers; and the lex vestiaria of the Code of Theodosius (382) which allowed slaves to wear only the birrus and cucullus.
247. To keep as a sacred relic.
248. Reading tina tw~n prw&twn with Turner.
249. I . e. seasickness.
250. For a sketch of a virgin living a similar life at Rome, see Jerome's account of Asella in Ep. 24.
251. Cf. Gal. vi. 14.
252. Cf. Gal. i. 10.
253. So far from this being an incredible demand, it was frequently done by both sexes in the early days of the Quaker movement.
254. There is MS. authority, including the Syriac Vit. Sarap., for "in the desert."
255. For Evagrius see Socr. IV. 23; Soz. VI. 30; Gennadius, de vir. illust. ii; Butler, I. 86 f., 101 f., 131 f., II. 216 f.; Zöckler, Evagrius Ponticus; Bardenhewer, Patrologie (1910), 222 f. Of his voluminous works only fragments remain in Greek and Latin, having been suppressed for their Origenistic tendency. For the same reason the present chapter is omitted in some MSS. of Palladius. There is a considerable amount of material in Syriac and Armenian for the future critical editor of Evagrius.
256. Wisd. iv. 13.
257. Basil's Pontic monastery was in the diocese of Ibora: Greg. Nyss. In XL. Mart. (P. G. XLVI. 784).
258. The normal sphere of a bishop's jurisdiction was a city with its dependent lands. In districts like Cappadocia, which had never been thoroughly Hellenized, cities were rare and xwrepi/skopoi (country-bishops) were accordingly appointed for the sake of practical convenience. See Turner in Cambridge Medieval History, I. 146.
259. Not Gregory of Nyssa, as Palladius seemed to say, in contradiction of Soz. VI. 30, before the true text was established.
260. A.D. 381.
261. ei0dw&lw| peripagh~nai gunaikikh~j e0piqumi/aj . The rendering given hardly makes sense. Can peripagh~nai mean "was beset," "fixed all round"?
262. To_ e0pixairesi/kakon . Exactly the German Schadenfreude,
263. I. e. the gospel on which the oath was made.
264. That is, from the clerical to the lay. But the text is difficult and probably corrupt.
265. komi/atoj zwh~j . So Turner, who quotes Acta S. Perpetuae: an passio sit commeatus.
266. I . e. clerical or monastic clothes.
267. Turner thinks that the MSS. discovered at Oxyrhyncus do not betray any characteristic style; so this must refer to some sort of handwriting reserved for MSS. de luxe.
268. The Antirrhetica, or "Answers," were in eight books. Turner, following the Coptic and later versions, considers the three books referred to in the text to have been (a) the Priest, ( b ) the Monk, ( c ) Answers. But see Butler, II. 218.
269. Palladius was present at his death, at Cellia in 399 or 400. There are variants, but h(mi=n is reasonably well attested.
270. This last sentence is quoted by Socrates (IV. 23) from Evagrius' work, The Monk.
271. Cf. X. 8, Soz. VI. 29.
272. See Butler, II. 197.
273. Who are frequently recorded in Genesis as digging wells.
274. See Soz. III. 16, and D.C.B.
275. Passages enclosed in square brackets are translations of Butler's Greek text, which is here a critical reconstruction.
276. Cf. XXXVI. 6.
277. Comes was a word of wide meaning. "Constantine . . . used it as a honorific designation for officers of many kinds, who were not necessarily in the immediate neighbourhood of an Augustus or Caesar, but were servants of the Augustus or Augusti and Caesars generally, that is to say might occupy any place in the whole imperial administration."----Reid in Camb. Med. Hist. Vol. I. ch. 2.
278. I . e. riches; cf. Mt. xix. 24.
279. Cf. LIV. 4.
280. See Soz. III. 14. Ephraim Syrus' Life of Julian is extant in Greek.
281. I.e., as in the Syriac, "until the third hour."
282. Probably to be identified with Pope Innocent I. He is mentioned in Basil, Epp. 258, 259, and Athanasius' letter to Palladius ( P. G. XXVI. 1167). But the Palladius mentioned by Athanasius and Basil is not the author of the Lausiac History. (Butler, II. 219 f.)
283. I. e. Bethany, as in the Pilgrimage of Etheria.
284. See XLI. 2.
285. th~j tetra&doj tou~ gra&fein .
286. See also LIV. Besides Palladius, Paulinus of Nola, Ep, 29, is our chief informant about Melania.
287. But see Rufinus, Apol. II. 26: "She was the granddaughter of the consul Marcellinus." See also Paulinus.
288. au)goustali/ou , the praefectus Augustalis.
289. karaka&llion , Latin caracalla, a long tunic or great-coat made with a hood (Lewis and Short).
290. kapni/zein . (Butler marks this word as corrupt or of uncertain meaning.)
291. kaqa&per i9e/raki tw~| tu&fw| kexrh~sqai .
292. Palladius takes Rufinus' part unhesitatingly in the famous quarrel between him and Jerome.
293. The long-continued Antiochian schism; unless the theory of Tillemont is right, according to which Paulinus should be Paulinianus, Jerome's brother, who was forcibly ordained by Epiphanius in 394 in defiance of the diocesan, John of Jerusalem.
294. It is uncertain whether this Chronius is to be identified with the Chronius of VII. and XXI.
295. See Butler, II. 224 f. for the various monks of this name.
296. Rom. xii. 8.
297. Ps. xlix. (1.) 16.
298. Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 66 (LXX),
299. Gen. iii. 1.
300. Job vi. 6.
301. Job. xl. 3.
302. 2 Cor. xii. 7.
303. Jn. v. 14.
304. ko&pron .
305. Rom. i. 28.
306. Rom. i. 21, 26.
307. Lucot aptly quotes the inscription of the Canaanite refugees in Africa, recorded by Procopius: "We are they who fled before Joshua the robber, the son of Nun."
308. Cf. i Macc. xvi. 15. Simon and his sons go down to Jericho and are received "into the little stronghold that is called Dok."
309. To be identified with the chorepiscopus of Bas., Epp. 24 and 291.
310. Cf. Basil's sermon De Iudicio Dei, 214E, in which he contrasts the Church distracted by its divisions with a swarm of bees he once saw "following their own king in good order." The Greeks generally mistook the sex of the queen bee, though, as Sir W. M. Ramsay points out (Hastings, D. B. V. 116 f.), the bee which symbolizes the goddess of the Ephesian cult is clearly feminine.
311. Reading to_ plh~qoj , which is necessitated by the sense.
312. Gal. iii. 28.
313. Cf. Soz. VI. 34.
314. Cf. XLI.
315. kosmiko&j .
316. Ch. XLVI.
317. In point of fact Melania had two other sons.
318. Butler dates this return to Rome in 398. Melania landed at Naples and went first to see Paulinus at Nola (Paulinus, Ep. 29).
319. I Cor. xv. 32; Ign. Rom. 5.
320. I St. John ii. 18.
321. filokalhqei=san .
322. The sack of Rome by Alaric in 410. Cf. Gibbon, Ch. XXXI. "The edifices of Rome, though the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from the violence of the Goths, . . . Some truth may possibly be concealed in his ( i . e. Orosius') devout assertion, that the wrath of Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage, and that the proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning." Palladius' evidence is contemporary and deserves respect.
323. Turner points out that this is a continuation of Ch. LIV; Butler agrees.
324. I . e. Palladius and Melania.
325. Jerusalem was called Aelia Capitolina by Hadrian in 136 A.D. after the suppression of the Jewish rebellion.
326. pugmh~| . Cf. Mk. vii. 3. "Probably the only allusion in patristic literature " (Turner).
327. Omitted by leading authorities for the text, as in the other places where he is mentioned by Palladius.
328. I Tim. vi. 20.
329. Cf. Heb. xii. 16.
330. Is this one of the rare traces in the later Church of the influence of the compromise of Acts xv. 20?
331. Eph. iv. 26.
332. From 406 onwards.
333. Ch. LXI.
334. Cf. XXI. 3.
335. a)peta&cato---suneta&cato .
336. From here to the end of section [3] the Greek given in the textual note to Butler's text is translated, in accordance with Butler's later judgment.
337. Prov. ix. 12(LXX).
338. Cf. Cassian, Coll. V. 12. "But in one matter vainglory is found to be a useful thing for beginners. I mean by those who are still troubled by carnal sins, as for instance, if, when they are troubled by the spirit of fornication, they formed an idea of the dignity of the priesthood, or of reputation among all men, by which they may be thought saints and immaculate; and so with these considerations they repel the unclean suggestions of lust, as deeming them base and at least unworthy of their rank and reputation; and so by means of a smaller evil they overcome a greater one."
339. I . e. "Mother."
340. martu&rion .
341. Not mentioned elsewhere.
342. Palladius, the author.
343. See Butler's notes, II. 231-3, on Melania, and his illustrations from the Vita Melaniae Jun.
344. 1 Cor. vii. 16.
345. 2 Tim. iv. 17.
346. Apparently to be interpreted literally; but perhaps metaphorically in allusion to Mt. xix. 12.
347. They were really at Bethlehem when Palladius wrote.
348. 405.
349. "At the head of each Dioecesis was placed an officer who bore the name vicarius, except in the Eastern prefecture" (Reid).
350. Cf. Soz. V. 6.
351. biri/n ( = birro&n ). See note on XXXVII. 6.
352. See D.C.B., art. "Athanasius," for the history of the time. Athanasius may have hid for a little while in a virgin's house, but the story as it stands is unhistorical.
353. Eus. H.E. VI. 17 tells the story in similar words. See Swete, Intr. to the O.T. in Greek, pp. 49, 50. Symmachus lived towards the end of the second century. The book probably would be the Bible, arranged in sti/xoi , lines or verses.
354. Nothing is known of this story from other sources. Hippolytus was not, of course, gnwri/mou tw~n a)posto&lwn .
355. neani/skw| magistrianw~| .
356. h} a)po_ komh&twn . Such expressions are common in Palladius. They mean that the man had held the dignity mentioned, or that he came of a family which had held it.
357. I . e. the gospel-book that tells of Christ.
358. h2 e0mauth_n diskeu&sw . I do not understand this word.
359. It is implied that marriage was impossible even to one in minor orders. Priests' children, born probably before ordination, are mentioned in XXXVIII. 2, XLI. 4, LXX. 1.
360. A transparent device by which Palladius speaks about himself.
361. 2 Cor. xii. 5, the passage which has suggested this literary device.
362. Mt. iv. 9.
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