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we will lose our own. Then, having also become accustomed to such lawless things, we become evil, so to speak, by nature and no longer wish to be renewed. We promised to be monks, and we have become more wicked than those in the world. We committed ourselves to hunger and to thirst and to suffer hardship, and for a single piece of bread we are not ashamed to argue and to blaspheme, and this perhaps when it is sought by us outside the appointed time for food. We came to renounce all who are in the world, I mean parents and brothers and friends, and we do not cease to feed them instead with the loaves of the monastery. We fled the world as an enemy, and we love the people of the world and the things of the world more than (48) Christ Himself.

Tell me, I ask you, brother, believing there is a judgment and a resurrection and a recompense for things lived, did you come to the monastery confessing that there is a God who will repay each according to his deeds, or did you not consider any of these things in your heart? Did you come to keep the covenants which you made and by which you committed yourself to Christ before many witnesses, or did you deceitfully feign this as a bond of brotherhood, grasping at becoming a member of the church, while the whole thing was prepared by you with the intent that you might receive unfailingly the food for satiety and gluttony and live a life both carefree and painless? If, then, you have come to become a servant of Christ and our brother, keep, I beseech you, also His commandments, and be zealous to serve Him fervently, so that you may appear a true Christian by your works and be named our God-loving brother, being made like us in all things; suffer hardship together as a good soldier, so that you may also be crowned and glorified with Him, rejoicing in eternal glory. But if, while putting on the whole pretense, you came to be tonsured and to become a monk, but you planned only to eat and drink with them, finding everything ready supposedly by itself, listen and I will tell you what things are going to meet you. First, which is also the greatest, know that you have not been reconciled nor have you been brought near to God, but you are reckoned His enemy and a plotter; and how are you not a plotter, planning one thing in your heart and promising another before all, and thinking to deceive the unerring God? He expressly commands all: "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, (49) what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear," but you are tonsured for this reason, that you might only be a brother and a partaker of possessions and money, which perhaps you did not possess while being in the world. The apostle exhorts, saying: "Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content," but you, not even being content with this necessary provision, steal and misappropriate the things of the monastery. And in all things that pertain to bodily pleasure and comfort you wish yourself to be a brother to all, without innovation, and you demand equality with those who labor in the work of the Lord; but if you see any of the brothers zealously training themselves for fasting or vigil or mortification of the body, and further for mourning or unceasing prayer, and all-night standings and psalmodies and spiritual hymns, and running with all their soul and purpose, you say that you are a stranger and are not able to do these things; and not only that, but also by hiding and not being found at the synaxis, you think you are benefiting yourself. O the utter darkness and ignorance and deceit of your thoughts! And what is more difficult than this, is that if even a trace of temptations appears before you or if the superior grieves you with some small grief for your testing, you deny the very habit, as I have heard many saying: "For have I come to become a slave to someone, or have I come to be insulted?" O the madness!

Did you not come to struggle against the unseen enemies? Have you not come to take up the war against the passions? For what reason did you wish to be enlisted and (50) to be ranked among the soldiers of Christ? so that receiving rations equally with them and

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ἡμῶν ἀπολέσομεν. Εἶτα καί εἰς τά τοιαῦτα ἐθισθέντες παράνομα, φυσικῶς, εἰπεῖν, κακοί γινόμεθα καί οὐκέτι ἀνανεῦσαι βουλόμεθα. Μοναχοί ἐπηγγειλάμεθα εἶναι καί πλεῖον τῶν κοσμικῶν ἐκακώθημεν. Πεινᾶσαι καί διψῆσαι καί κακοπαθῆσαι συνεταξάμεθα, καί ὑπέρ ἑνός κλάσματος ἄρτου λογομαχεῖν καί βλασφημεῖν οὐκ αἰσχυνόμεθα, καί τότε ἴσως ἐπιζητουμένου παρ᾿ ἡμῶν παρά τόν ὡρισμένον καιρόν τῆς τροφῆς. Πᾶσι τοῖς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, γονεῦσι, λέγω, καί ἀδελφοῖς καί φίλοις, ἤλθομεν ἀποτάξασθαι, καί τρέφειν μᾶλλον αὐτούς ἐκ τῶν τῆς μονῆς ἄρτων οὐ διαλιμπάνομεν. Ὡς ἐχθρόν τόν κόσμον ἐφύγομεν, καί τούς τοῦ κόσμου καί τά τοῦ κόσμου πλέον ἤ (48) αὐτόν τόν Χριστόν ἀγαπῶμεν.

Εἰπέ μοι, ἐρωτῶ σε, ἀδελφέ, πιστεύων εἶναι κρίσιν καί ἀνάστασιν καί ἀνταπόδοσιν τῶν βεβιωμένων, ἦλθες ἐν τῇ μονῇ ὁμολογῶν εἶναι Θεόν μέλλοντα ἀποδοῦναι ἑκάστῳ κατά τάς πράξεις αὐτοῦ, ἤ οὐδέ τινα τούτων διέθου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου; Τηρῆσαι τάς συνθήκας ἅς συνέθου καί συνετάξω τῷ Χριστῷ ἐπί πολλῶν μαρτύρων ἐλήλυθας, ἤ τοῦτο μέν ὡς δεσμόν ἀδελφότητος δολίως προσεποιήσω, μέλος γενέσθαι τῆς ἐκκλησίας περιδρασσόμενος, τό δέ ὅλον ἦν σοι ἐν μελέτῃ κατεσκευασμένον, ἵνα λαμβάνῃς ἀνελλιπῶς τά πρός χορτασίαν καί γαστριμαργίαν χορτάσματα καί ζῇς βίον ἀμέριμνόν τε καί ἄπονον; Εἰ μέν οὖν παρεγένου δοῦλος γενέσθαι Χριστοῦ καί ἡμέτερος ἀδελφός, φύλασσε, παρακαλῶ, καί τάς αὐτοῦ ἐντολάς, καί θερμῶς δουλεύειν αὐτῷ προθυμήθητι, ἵνα φανῇς χριστανός ἀληθής ἐκ τῶν ἔργων καί ἀδελφός ἡμῶν φιλόθεος χρηματίσῃς, ἡμῖν ἐν πᾶσιν ἐξομοιούμενος· συγκακόπαθησον ὡς καλός στρατιώτης, ἵνα καί στεφανωθῇς καί συνδοξασθῇς, αἰωνίῳ δόξῃ ἐπευφραινόμενος. Εἰ δέ τό πᾶν σχηματιζόμενος μέν κουρεύεσθαι καί μοναχός γίνεσθαι ἦλθες, τρώγειν δέ καί πίνειν μετ᾿ αὐτῶν ἐμελέτησας μόνον, ἕτοιμα τά πάντα εὑρίσκων δῆθεν ἐξ αὐτομάτου, ἄκουσον καί ἐγώ σοι λέξω ἅ σοι μέλλουσιν ὑπαντῆσαι. Πρῶτον μέν, ὅ καί μέγιστον, ἴσθι ὡς οὐ κατηλλάγης οὐδέ προσῳκειώθης Θεῷ, ἀλλά ἐχθρός λελόγισαι αὐτοῦ καί ἐπίβουλος· καί πῶς δέ οὐκ ἐπίβουλος, ἄλλα μελετῶν ἐν καρδίᾳ καί ἄλλα ἐπί πάντων ἐπαγγελλόμενος καί δοκῶν τόν ἀλάθητον λανθάνειν Θεόν; Ἐκεῖνος· "Μή μεριμνήσητε περί τῆς αὔριον, (49) τί φάγητε ἤ τί πίητε ἤ τί ἐνδύσησθε" διαρρήδην πᾶσιν ἐντέλλεται, σύ δέ διά τοῦτο ἀποκείρῃ, ἵνα μόνον ἀδελφός ὑπάρχῃς καί κοινωνός κτημάτων καί χρημάτων, ὧν ἴσως ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ὤν οὐκ ἐκυρίευσας. Ὁ ἀπόστολος παραινεῖ λέγων· "Ἔχοντες διατροφάς καί σκεπάσματα, τούτοις ἀρκεσθησόμεθα", σύ δέ μηδέ εἰς αὐτήν τήν ἀναγκαίαν χρείαν ἀρκούμενος, κλέπτεις καί νοσφίζῃ τά τῆς μονῆς. Καί ἐν πᾶσι μέν τοῖς πρός σωματικήν ἡδονήν καί θεραπείαν ὑπάρχουσιν ἀδελφόν σεαυτόν εἶναι τῶν ἁπάντων ἀκαινοτόμητον βούλῃ καί τήν ἰσότητα μετά τῶν κοπιώντων εἰς τό ἔργον Κυρίου προσαπαιτεῖς· ἐάν δέ πρός νηστείαν ἤ ἀγρυπνίαν ἤ τῆξιν σώματος, ἔτι δέ πρός πένθος ἤ εὐχήν ἀδιάλειπτον, παννύχους τε στάσεις καί ψαλμωδίας καί ὕμνους πνευματικούς ἴδῃς τινάς τῶν ἀδελφῶν προθύμως ἑαυτούς γυμνάζοντας καί τρέχοντας ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ καί προθέσει, ἀλλότριον σεαυτόν εἶναι λέγεις καί ταῦτα ποιεῖν μή δύνασθαι· οὐ μόνον δέ ἀλλά καί ἀποκρυβόμενος καί μή εὑρισκόμενος εἰς τήν σύναξιν, οἴει σεαυτόν ὠφελεῖν. Ὤ τῆς ἄγαν σκοτώσεως καί ἀγνοίας καί τῆς ἀπάτης τῶν λογισμῶν σου! Καί τό χαλεπώτερον τούτου, ὅτι καί πειρασμῶν ἴχνος ἐάν ἐνώπιόν σου φανήσεται ἤ καί πρός δοκιμήν σου μικράν τινα λύπην λυπήσῃ σε ὁ ἡγούμενος, καί αὐτό ἀπαρνῇ τό ἔνδυμα, καθά πολλούς ἐγώ λέγοντας ἤκουσα· "Μή γάρ δοῦλος γενέσθαι τινός ἐλήλυθα ἤ διά τό ὑβρίζεσθαι παραγέγονα; " Ὤ τῆς παραπληξίας!

Οὐκ ἦλθες κατά τῶν ἀοράτων ἐχθρῶν ἀγωνίσασθαι; Οὐκ ἐλήλυθας ἀναλαβέσθαι τόν κατά τῶν παθῶν πόλεμον; ∆ι᾿ ἥν αἰτίαν στρατευθῆναι καί (50) τοῖς Χριστοῦ στρατιώταις καταταγῆναι ἠθέλησας; ἵνα σιτηρέσια ἐπίσης αὐτοῖς λαμβάνων καί