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having become, and they will be partakers of the endless kingdom. Thus therefore, having considered it best, they pursued the solitary and quiet life, some persevering in the open air, being afflicted by the flame of the heat and by fierce frosts and rains and the disturbances of winds; while others, having built huts, or having hidden themselves in caves and caverns, 174 lived. And so, pursuing virtue, they completely denied every carnal comfort and repose, adhering to a diet of raw vegetables and herbs, or fruits, or dry and very hard bread, not only renouncing pleasures in quality, but, by the abundance of their continence, extending their ambition also with respect to quantity. For they partook of even the humblest and most necessary foods only enough to survive. For some of them, remaining without food for all the days of the week, would partake of food on the Lord's day; while others partook twice in the week; and others every other day, or even every evening, ate only so much as to taste food. And with prayers and vigils they almost vied with the life of the angels, bidding farewell completely to the possession of gold and silver, having forgotten that buying and selling exist at all among men. And envy and arrogance, which are especially accustomed to follow good works, had no place among them. For not even the one who was lesser in the toils of asceticism received in himself at all a thought of envy against the one shining more brightly; nor again, on the other hand, did arrogance, having deceived, lift up the one achieving great things to conceit against the weaker, or to despise his neighbor, or to boast in his ascetic practice, and to be proud of his achievements. For the one who had more in virtue, ascribing the whole not to his own labors but to the power of God, persuaded himself with a humble mind to have accomplished 176 nothing at all, but also to be a debtor of more, as the Lord says: When you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what we were obliged to do.’ And they in turn persuaded themselves that they had never done the things commanded, but that the things lacking were more than the things already accomplished. And again the one who was lacking in ascetic practice, perhaps because of bodily weakness, humbled himself, counting himself wretched, reckoning the shortcoming to indifference of mind, not to weakness of nature. Thus therefore each was more humble than the other, and all were more humble than all others; and the passion of vainglory or of pleasing men, where was it among them? who, having fled the inhabited world, for this reason dwell in the desert, wishing to show their achievements not to men, but to God, from whom they also hope for the rewards for their achievements, knowing well that the ascetic practices performed for vainglory are without reward, for they are done for the praise of men and not for God; whence also such men are doubly wronged, wasting away their body and not receiving a reward. But they who yearned for the glory above and hastened towards it despised all that is earthly and human. And some have their dwellings, completing their contest in complete withdrawal and solitude, having removed themselves far from the company of men for their whole lifetime and having drawn near to God; while others, having established their dwellings far from one another, go to one church on the Lord's days, and partake of the divine mysteries, I mean the unbloody sacrifice, of the 178 immaculate body and of the precious blood of Christ, which the Lord granted to the faithful for the remission of sins, and for the illumination and sanctification of soul and body; and, feasting one another with the exercise of the divine words and with moral exhortations, and making public the hidden wars of the adversaries, so that no one who is ignorant of the method of the struggle may be captured by them, homeward

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γενόμενοι, καὶ τῆς ἀτελευτήτου βασιλείας συμμέτοχοι ἔσονται. οὕτως οὖν ἄριστα διασκεψάμενοι, τὸν μονάδα καὶ ἡσύχιον μετῆλθον βίον, τινὲς μὲν αἴθριοι διακαρτερήσαντες, τῷ φλογμῷ τοῦ καύσωνος καὶ κρυμοῖς ἀγρίοις καὶ ὄμβροις καὶ ταραχαῖς ἀνέμων ταλαιπωρούμενοι· οἱ δέ, καλύβας πηξάμενοι, ἢ σπηλαίοις καὶ ἄντροις ὑποκρυ 174 βέντες, διέζησαν. οὕτω δὲ τὴν ἀρετὴν μετερχόμενοι, πᾶσαν σαρκικὴν παράκλησιν καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν εἰς τέλος ἀπηρνήσαντο, λαχάνων ὠμῶν καὶ βοτανῶν, ἢ ἀκροδρύων, ἢ ἄρτου ξηροῦ καὶ πάνυ σκληροῦ στοιχήσαντες διαίτῃ, μὴ τῇ ποιότητι μόνον ἀποταξάμενοι τῶν ἡδέων, ἀλλά, τῷ περιόντι τῆς ἐγκρατείας, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ποσότητα τὸ φιλότιμον ἑαυτῶν παρατείναντες. τοσοῦτον γὰρ καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν εὐτελῶν καὶ ἀναγκαιοτάτων μετελάμβανον βρωμάτων, ὅσον ἀποζῆν μόνον. οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν, ὅλας τὰς τῆς ἑβδομάδος ἡμέρας ἄσιτοι διατελοῦντες, τῇ κυριακῇ τροφῆς μετελάμβανον· οἱ δὲ δὶς τῆς ἑβδομάδος ταύτης μεμνημένοι· ἄλλοι δὲ παρὰ μίαν, ἢ καὶ καθ' ἑσπέραν, ἐσιτοῦντο ὅσον μόνον τροφῆς ἀπογεύεσθαι. εὐχαῖς τε καὶ ἀγρυπνίαις μικροῦ πρὸς τὸν τῶν ἀγγέλων παρημιλλήθησαν βίον, χαίρειν εἰπόντες χρυσίου καὶ ἀργυρίου τῇ κτήσει παντάπασι, πράσεις τε καὶ ἀγορασίας ἐπιλαθόμενοι εἶναι ὅλως ἐν ἀνθρώποις. Φθόνος δὲ καὶ ἔπαρσις, οἱ μάλιστα τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἔργοις ἀκολουθεῖν εἰωθότες, οὐκ ἔσχον χώραν ἐν αὐτοῖς. οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ ἐλάττων ἐν τοῖς τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἱδρῶσι κατὰ τοῦ μᾶλλον διαλάμποντος βασκανίας λογισμὸν ὅλως ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὑπεδέχετο· οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν τὸν μεγάλα κατορθοῦντα κατὰ τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων πρὸς οἴησιν ἐπῆρεν ἡ ἀλαζονεία ἢ ἐξουθενεῖν τὸν πλησίον, ἢ ἐγκαυχᾶσθαι τῇ ἀσκήσει, καὶ μεγαλοφρονεῖν ἐπὶ τοῖς κατορθώμασιν, ἀπατήσασα. ὁ γὰρ τὸ πλέον ἔχων εἰς ἀρετήν, οὐ πόνοις ἰδίοις, ἀλλὰ Θεοῦ δυνάμει, τὸ πᾶν ἐπιγράφων, ταπεινόφρονι γνώμῃ ἔπειθεν ἑαυτὸν μηδὲν ὅλως ἐργά 176 ζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ πλειόνων ὀφειλέτην εἶναι, καθά φησιν ὁ Κύριος· Ὅταν ποιήσητε πάντα τὰ διαταχθέντα ὑμῖν, λέγετε, ὅτι Ἀχρεῖοι δοῦλοί ἐσμεν, ὅτι ὃ ὠφείλομεν ποιῆσαι πεποιήκαμεν. οἱ δὲ πάλιν οὐδὲ ποιῆσαί ποτε τὰ διατεταγμένα ἔπειθον ἑαυτούς, ἀλλὰ πλείονα εἶναι τῶν ἤδη κατωρθωμένων τὰ ἐλλείποντα. καὶ ὁ ἐλαττούμενος πάλιν ἐν τῇ ἀσκήσει, διὰ σωματικὴν ἴσως ἀσθένειαν, ἐξευτέλιζε ταλανίζων ἑαυτόν, ῥᾳθυμίᾳ γνώμης, οὐχὶ φύσεως ἀσθενείᾳ, τὸ ὑστέρημα λογιζόμενος. οὕτως οὖν ἄλλος ἄλλου καὶ πάντες ἁπάντων ἦσαν μετριώτεροι· κενοδοξίας δὲ πάθος ἢ ἀνθρωπαρεσκείας ποῦ ἐν ἐκείνοις; οἵτινες, τὴν οἰκουμένην φυγόντες, διὰ τοῦτο οἰκοῦσι τὴν ἔρημον, οὐκ ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ Θεῷ τὰ κατορθώματα δεικνύναι βουλόμενοι, παρ' οὗ καὶ τῶν κατορθωμάτων τὰς ἀμοιβὰς ἐλπίζουσι, καλῶς ἐπιστάμενοι ὅτι αἱ διὰ κενοδοξίαν ἐπιτελούμεναι ἀσκήσεις ἄμισθοι, δι' ἔπαινον γὰρ ἀνθρώπων, καὶ οὐ διὰ τὸν Θεὸν γίνονται· ὅθεν καὶ διπλῶς οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἀδικοῦνται, τὸ σῶμα κατατήκοντες καὶ μισθὸν μὴ λαμβάνοντες. οἱ δὲ τῆς ἄνω δόξης ὀρεγόμενοι καὶ πρὸς ταύτην ἐπειγόμενοι πάσης τῆς ἐπιγείου καὶ ἀνθρωπίνης κατεφρόνησαν. Ἔχουσι δὲ τὰς οἰκήσεις οἱ μὲν ἐν παντελεῖ ἀναχωρήσει καὶ μονίᾳ τὸν ἀγῶνα διανύοντες, μακρύναντες ἑαυτοὺς τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων συναυλίας παρ' ὅλον αὐτῶν τὸν τῆς ζωῆς χρόνον καὶ Θεῷ πλησιάσαντες· οἱ δέ, πόρρωθεν ἀλλήλων τὰς οἰκήσεις πηξάμενοι, ταῖς Κυριακαῖς εἰς ἐκκλησίαν μίαν φοιτῶσι, καὶ τῶν θείων μυστηρίων κοινωνοῦσι, τῆς ἀναιμάκτου φημὶ θυσίας, τοῦ 178 ἀχράντου σώματος καὶ τοῦ τιμίου αἵματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἃ τοῖς πιστοῖς εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, φωτισμόν τε καὶ ἁγιασμὸν ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος ὁ Κύριος ἐδωρήσατο· καί, ἑστιῶντες ἀλλήλους γυμνασίᾳ τῶν θείων λόγων καὶ ταῖς ἠθικαῖς παραινέσεσι, τούς τε κρυπτοὺς τῶν ἀντιπάλων δημοσιεύοντες πολέμους, ὥστε μὴ ἁλῶναι τούτοις τινὰ τῆς πάλης ἀγνοοῦντα τὴν μέθοδον, οἴκαδε