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they brought him back. And throwing all those things away again, he immediately went down from the mountains into the middle of the marketplace and riding on a horse and having many attendants, thus he went about the whole city. Then what? And he was no longer willing to be temperate. For, being inflamed by much luxury, he was compelled to fall into unseemly passions; and there was not one of those in his circle who did not despair of his salvation; so great a swarm of flatterers surrounded him, and there was also his orphanhood and youth and great wealth. And those who easily find fault with everything accused those who had brought him to this in the first place, saying, that he had missed spiritual things and would no longer be useful for his own affairs, having leaped away from the labors of study before his time, and being able to reap no fruit from them. And while these things were being said and there was great shame, certain holy men, who had often succeeded in such a hunt, and having learned well through experience, that one must despair of none of these things, being armed with hope in God, watching him continually whenever they saw him appear in the marketplace, they would approach and greet him. And at first, from atop his horse, he would speak to them as they followed alongside him; so much shamelessness possessed him at the beginning. But those compassionate and child-loving men were ashamed of none of these things, but looked to one thing only, how they might snatch the lamb from the wolves; which indeed through perseverance they also accomplished. For later, as if coming to himself from some sort of frenzy, and blushing at their great attentiveness, whenever he saw them approaching from afar, he would immediately dismount and, bowing his head, would thus listen in silence to everything from them, and as time went on, he showed more reverence and honor towards them. And so, by the grace of God, having gradually drawn him out of all those nets, they delivered him again to his former solitude and philosophy. And he shone so brightly now, that his former life, when compared to the one after his fall, seemed to be nothing. For having understood the bait well from experience, and having spent all his wealth on the needy, and having freed himself from those cares, he cut off every pretext for those who wished to plot against him; and now walking the road to heaven, he has finally reached the very end of virtue.

19 But this man, while still young, both fell and rose again, but another, after the many toils which he endured while living in the deserts, having only one companion and living an angelic life, and now advancing towards old age, I know not how, by some satanic circumstance and by dozing off, having given a small opening to the evil one, fell into a desire for intercourse with women, he who had never seen a woman from the time he had transferred himself to the monastic life. And first he demanded that his companion provide him with meat and wine, and he threatened that if he did not get it, he would go down to the marketplace. But he said these things not because he desired meat, but because he wanted to get some occasion and pretext to fulfill his desire. At this, that man, being at a loss and fearing that by preventing this he might push him to a great evil, allowed him to be filled with his desire. But when he knew that this wise counsel had become stale, having now become openly shameless, he revealed his hypocrisy, and said that he absolutely had to go down into the city. And since that man had no power to prevent him, in the end he let him go and, following from a distance, he watched to see what this descent of his could possibly mean. And seeing him enter a brothel, and knowing that he had been with a prostitute, waiting until after he had fulfilled that unseemly desire, he received him as he came out with open arms, and embracing and kissing him warmly, and making no accusation for what had happened, he only exhorted him, since he had fulfilled his desire, to return again to the dwelling place of the desert. But he, being ashamed at the great forbearance, was immediately struck in his soul and, being pierced with compunction for the things

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ἐπανήγαγον. Καὶ πάντα ῥίψας πάλιν ἐκεῖνα, ἀπὸ τῶν ὀρέων εἰς μέσην εὐθέως κατέβη τὴν ἀγορὰν καὶ ἵππῳ ὀχούμενος καὶ ἀκολούθους ἔχων πολλούς, οὕτω περιῄει τὴν πόλιν πᾶσαν. Εἶτα τί; Καὶ οὐδὲ σωφρονεῖν ἤθελεν λοιπόν. Ὑπὸ γὰρ τῆς πολλῆς ἐκκαιόμενος τρυφῆς καὶ εἰς ἔρωτας ἐμπίπτειν ἀτόπους ἠναγκάζετο· καὶ οὐδὲ εἷς ἦν τῶν ἐν μέσῳ στρεφομένων, ὅστις οὐ τὴν σωτηρίαν ἀπηγόρευσεν τὴν ἐκείνου· τοσοῦτος αὐτὸν συνεῖχεν κολάκων ἑσμός, καὶ προσῆν ὀρφανία καὶ νεότης καὶ πλοῦτος πολύς. Καὶ οἱ τὰ πάντα εὐκόλως μεμφόμενοι, τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦτο τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀγαγόντων αὐτὸν κατηγόρουν λέγοντες, ὅτι καὶ τῶν πνευματικῶν διήμαρτεν καὶ οὐδὲ τοῖς αὑτοῦ πράγμασιν χρήσιμος ἔσται λοιπόν, πρὸ ὥρας τῶν περὶ λόγους πόνων ἀποπηδήσας, καὶ μηδὲν ἐκεῖθεν καρπώσασθαι δυνηθείς. Τούτων δὲ λεγομένων καὶ πολλῆς τῆς αἰσχύνης οὔσης, ἅγιοί τινες ἄνδρες καὶ πολ λάκις τοιαύτης θήρας ἐπιτυχόντες, καὶ διὰ τῆς πείρας μαθόντες καλῶς, ὅτι οὐδέν τι τῶν τοιούτων ἀπογινώσκειν χρὴ ταῖς εἰς τὸν θεὸν ὁπλιζομένους ἐλπίσιν, παρατηροῦντες αὐτὸν συνεχῶς εἴ ποτε εἶδον φανέντα ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς, καὶ προσῄεσαν καὶ ἠσπάζοντο. Καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ἐκεῖνος ἄνωθεν αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἵππου παρακολουθοῦσιν ἐκ πλαγίων διελέγετο· τοσαύτη κατεῖχεν αὐτὸν ἀναισχυντία τὴν ἀρχήν. Οἱ δὲ εὔσπλαγχνοι καὶ φιλόπαιδες ἐκεῖνοι τούτων μὲν ᾐσχύνοντο οὐδέν, εἰς ἓν δὲ ἑώρων μόνον, ὅτι πῶς τῶν λύκων τὸ ἀρνίον ἀποσπάσωσιν· ὅπερ οὖν διὰ τῆς καρτερίας καὶ ἤνυσαν. Ὕστερον γὰρ ὥσπερ ἔκ τινος παραπληξίας ἐν ἑαυτῷ γενόμενος, καὶ τὴν πολλὴν αὐτῶν προσεδρίαν ἐρυθριάσας, εἴ ποτε αὐτοὺς πόρρωθεν προσιόντας εἶδεν, ἀπεπήδα τε εὐθέως καὶ κάτω νεύων, οὕτω μετὰ σιγῆς τὰ παρ' ἐκείνων ἤκουεν ἅπαντα, καὶ προϊὼν πλείονα τὴν πρὸς αὐτοὺς αἰδῶ καὶ τιμὴν ἐπεδείκνυτο. Καὶ οὕτως αὐτὸν κατὰ μικρὸν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ χάριτι πάντων ἐκείνων ἐξελκύσαντες τῶν δικτύων, τῇ προτέρᾳ πάλιν ἐρημίᾳ καὶ φιλοσοφίᾳ παρέδωκαν. Καὶ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἔλαμψεν νῦν, ὡς τὸν πρότερον αὐτοῦ βίον, τῷ μετὰ τὴν ἔκπτωσιν παραβαλλόμενον, μηδὲν εἶναι δοκεῖν. Συνιδὼν γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς πείρας καλῶς τὸ δέλεαρ, καὶ πάντα εἰς τοὺς δεομένους ἀναλώσας τὸν πλοῦτον, καὶ τῶν φροντίδων ἀπολύσας ἑαυτὸν ἐκείνων, πᾶσαν τοῖς βουλομένοις ἐπιβουλεύειν ἐξέκοψε πρόφασιν· καὶ νῦν τὴν ἐπὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν βαδίζων ὁδόν, πρὸς αὐτὸ λοιπὸν τὸ τέλος ἔφθασεν τῆς ἀρετῆς.

19 Ἀλλ' οὗτος μὲν ἔτι νέος ὢν καὶ κατέπεσεν καὶ ἀνέστη, ἕτερος δέ τις μετὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἱδρῶτας, οὓς ἐν ταῖς ἐρημίαις διατρίβων ἤνεγκεν, ἕνα σύνοικον ἔχων μόνον καὶ ἀγγελικὸν βίον βιούς, καὶ πρὸς γῆρας ἐλαύνων λοιπόν, οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως, ὑπὸ σατανικῆς τινος περιστάσεως καὶ τοῦ ἀπονυστάξαι, μικρὸν πάροδον δοὺς τῷ πονηρῷ, εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς πρὸς γυναῖκας ὁμιλίας ἐνέπεσεν, ὁ μηδέποτε γυναῖκα ἰδὼν ἐξ οὗ πρὸς τὸν τῶν μοναχῶν βίον μετέθηκεν ἑαυτόν. Καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ἠξίου τὸν σύνοικον κρέα καὶ οἶνον αὐτῷ παρασχεῖν, καὶ ἠπείλει, εἰ μὴ λάβοι, κατελεύσεσθαι εἰς τὴν ἀγοράν. Ταῦτα δὲ οὐ κρεῶν ἐπιθυμῶν ἔλεγεν, ἀλλ' ἀφορμήν τινα καὶ πρόφασιν βουλόμενος λαβεῖν τοῦ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν πληρῶσαι. Ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐκεῖνος ἀπορούμενος καὶ δεδοικὼς μὴ τοῦτο κωλύσας ἐπὶ μέγα αὐτὸν ὤσῃ κακόν, δίδωσιν ἐμφορηθῆναι τῆς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῷ. Ὡς δὲ ἔγνω τὸ σοφὸν τοῦτο ἕωλον γεγονός, φανερῶς ἀναισχυντήσας λοιπόν, ἀπεκάλυψεν τὴν ὑπόκρισιν, καὶ δεῖν ἔλεγεν πάντως εἰς τὴν πόλιν αὐτὸν κατελθεῖν. Ὡς δὲ οὐδὲν ἴσχυεν κωλύων ἐκεῖνος, τέλος ἀφῆκεν καὶ πόρρωθεν ἀκολουθῶν ἐπετήρει τί ποτε ἄρα αὐτῷ βούλεται ἡ τοιαύτη κάθοδος. Ἰδὼν δὲ εἰς χαμαιτυπεῖον εἰσελθόντα, καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι πόρνῃ συγγέγονε γυναικί, περιμείνας μετὰ τὸ πληρῶσαι τὴν ἄτοπον ἐπιθυμίαν ἐκείνην, ἐξελθόντα ὑπτίαις δέχεται ταῖς χερσίν, καὶ περιχυθεὶς καὶ καταφιλήσας θερμῶς, καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν γεγενημένων ἐγκαλέσας οὐδέν, παρεκάλει μόνον, ἐπειδὴ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐπλήρωσεν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ, πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ἐρημίας οἰκητήριον ἐπανελθεῖν. Ὁ δὲ τὴν πολλὴν ἐπιείκειαν αἰσχυνθεὶς ἐπλήγη τε εὐθέως τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ κατανυγεὶς ἐπὶ τοῖς