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the birds of the air make their nests in it," which itself also seemed to have much that was unseemly with regard to what was being done; at first, while they were eager to conceal it, they did not succeed in covering it up, but the truth was bruited about, but not, however, to the point of bringing condemnation on what had been done from this, since they did not say it had happened by chance (for chance is far from the accomplishment of divine matters), but believing that the oracle hinted at something else obliquely. And indeed many such things have happened. They say a gnashing of teeth occurred for Arsenios; but the oracle was not fulfilled in his case at all, as it turned out, but very much so in the common affairs of the church, since indeed a certain God-bearing man, as it is said, upon hearing that Arsenios was established over the church, said, "Arsenios, the beginning of scandals," connecting the beginning with the beginning of his name. For such reasons, both the clergy and all the people received the patriarch with the fitting full assurance.

16. A short time after, and monastic servants from somewhere outside rush in to him. And some from without and some from within did not hesitate to do those things, which one would not say were of spiritual men, 148 and which were in fact altogether unworthy of even moderate men. For they bore down very heavily upon many, and especially upon monks. And the pretext was plausible: that they were indifferent out of habit, and they break the fast days of the week into two meals, and they break them also often with wine and oil, and they use condiments, and are fed better than the many, and that some possess money. And to such a degree did they scrutinize these things and punish them with penalties, that not only did the indifferent fear and tremble at their supervision, as if they would be punished most severely if they were only reported, but also he who seemed most careful. And as they say of the scorpion, that coming out of its hole it knows not where it might strike its sting, but immediately injects it into all things, both plants and rocks and animals and earth, doing its own business, so also was their practice plainly, injecting bitterness into those they oversaw on account of the patriarch’s rigor in all things, as it seemed. For that man, the gold that was found was a condemnation; for this man, the newness of his clothes; for another, the use of two or even three tunics; for another, that his cross was of silver or even of gold, and that it was expensively 149 made; for another, that his small knife was well-wrought; and for another, that his handkerchief was whitened; that this one had bathed; that that one had been negligent; that he had associated with friends; that having fallen ill he went to a doctor. And who could number the accusations, which indeed long-suffering nature drags along like tow-ropes on the stage of life of wretched men? Laying hold of these things, they reproached and dishonored and dragged them about and did not cease to sentence them to comfortless imprisonments. There was also the fact that they collected money from monasteries, justifying this as drawing out the material of passions and extinguishing the fire of passion from thence; but if sparks, as it seemed, were also smoldering in their hands, Heracles, physicians to others, as they say, while they themselves abounded in ulcers. Nevertheless, from this no little hatred was nourished against them by many, and an implacable wrath, and all detested them, with truces being made only with those whom they treated as their own. And upon many who seemed to have sinned they inflicted heavy blows, ostensibly from zeal and rigor, showing 150 their inexorable and uncompromising nature in all things, so that all were in fear and anguish, and most were reckoned in condemnation. And they overturned and confounded everything through their supposed rigor, like the "things" of Anaxagoras. But the men of the church, seeing these things, for the most part found fault among themselves, but reminding the patriarch and reporting to him that many were receiving merciless blows from the savage servants, as if indeed he did not know most of it, they were condemned as being without toil concerning the good, so that by not hating evil exceedingly, they did not receive the good with the same measures. For it was, as

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πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατα σκηνοῦσιν ἐν αὐτῷ," ὃ καὶ αὐτὸ πολὺ τὸ ἀπεμφαῖνον ἔχειν ἐδό κει πρὸς τὰ τελούμενα τέως τὸ πρῶτον καὶ λαθεῖν σπουδάζοντες οὐκ εὐώδουν συγκαλύπτειν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀληθὲς ἐφημίζετο, οὐ μὴν δὲ καὶ εἰς κατάγνωσιν ἄγειν τὰ τελεσθέντα ἐντεῦθεν, κατὰ τύχην μὲν οὐ λεγόντων ἐκβῆναι (πόρρω γὰρ ἡ τύχη τελουμένων θείων πραγμάτων), ἄλλο δέ τι ὑποδηλοῦν τὸ λόγιον κατὰ τὸ λοξὸν πι στευόντων. ἃ δὴ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα καὶ ξυμβεβήκασι. βρυγμὸν λέγουσιν ἐκβῆναι τῷ Ἀρσενίῳ· ἀλλ' ὁ χρησμὸς ἐπ' αὐτῷ μὲν οὐδ' ὁτιοῦν ἐπληροῦτο, ὡς ἔδειξεν, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς κοινοῖς τῆς ἐκκλη σίας καὶ λίαν, ὅπου γε καί τις, ὡς λέγεται, θεοφόρος ἀνήρ, ἀκουσθὲν ὡς Ἀρσένιος ἐπὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας κατέστη, εἶπεν "Ἀρσένιος ἀρχὴ σκανδάλων," τῇ ἀρχῇ συμβαλλομένου ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ ὀνόματος. διὰ τοιαῦτα καὶ ἐν πληροφορίᾳ τῇ προσηκούσῃ τὸν πατριάρχην καὶ κλῆρος καὶ λαὸς ἅπας ἐδέχοντο.

16. Ὀλίγον τὸ μεταξύ, καὶ ἐπεισφροῦσι τούτῳ ὑπηρέται μοναχοί ποθεν ἔξωθεν. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐκτὸς οἱ δ' ἐντὸς ἐκεῖνα ποιεῖν οὐκ ἀπώκνουν, ἃ δὴ πνευματικῶν μὲν ἀνδρῶν οὐκ ἂν εἴ 148 ποι τις, τέως δ' ἀνθρώπων καὶ μετρίων τὸ παράπαν ἦσαν οὐκ ἄξια. πολλοῖς γάρ, μοναχοῖς δὲ μάλιστα, καὶ λίαν ἐπεῖχον. καὶ ἡ πρόφασις εὔλογος, ὡς ἀδιαφοροῦσιν ἐξ ἔθους, καὶ τὰς τῆς ἑβδομάδος νηστίμους καταλύουσι μὲν εἰς διφαγίαν καταλύου σι δὲ καὶ εἰς οἶνον πολλάκις καὶ ἔλαιον, καὶ παραρτύμασι χρῶν ται, καὶ παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς τρέφονται, καὶ ὡς χρήματά τινες ἔχοιεν. καὶ τοσοῦτον ἐφυλοκρίνουν ταῦτα καὶ ποιναῖς ἐξεκόλα ζον, ὡς μὴ μόνον τοὺς ἀδιαφοροῦντας δεδιέναι καὶ τρέμειν τὴν ἐκείνων ἐπιστασίαν, ὡς εἰ μόνον προσαγγελθεῖεν κολασθησομέ νους τὰ μέγιστα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν δοκοῦντα προσεκτικώτατον. καὶ ὅπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ σκορπίου φασίν, ἐκ τῆς ὀπῆς ἐξιόντα μηδὲν εἰδέ ναι ὅπῃ τὸ κέντρον προσβάλοι, ἀλλ' εὐθὺς ἐνιέναι πᾶσι, καὶ φυτοῖς καὶ πέτραις καὶ ζώοις καὶ γῇ, τὰ αὐτοῦ πράττοντα, οὕτω κἀκείνοις ἄντικρυς ἦν τοὐπιτήδευμα, ἐνιεῖσι πικρίαν οἷς ἐπισταῖεν διὰ τὴν τοῦ πατριαρχοῦντος ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, ὡς ἐδόκει, ἀκρίβειαν. ἐκείνῳ τὸ εὑρεθὲν χρυσίον κατάγνωσις, τούτῳ τὸ τῶν ἱματίων καινόν, ἄλλῳ τὸ δυσὶ χιτωνίσκοις ἢ καὶ τρισὶ χρῆσθαι, ἄλλῳ ὅτι ὁ σταυρὸς ἐξ ἀργύρου ἢ μὴν καὶ χρυσίου, καὶ ὅτι πολυτελὴς 149 κατεσκεύασται, ἄλλῳ ὡς τὸ μαχαιρίδιον εὖ ἤσκηται, καὶ ἄλλῳ ὡς λελεύκωται τὸ χειρόμακτρον, ὡς ἐλούθη οὗτος, ὡς ἐκεῖνος ἀπερραθύμησεν, ὡς φίλοις ἐχρήσατο, ὡς ἀσθενήσας ἰατρῷ προσῆλθε. καὶ τίς ἂν τὰ αἰτιάματα ἀριθμήσειεν, ἃ δὴ καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ σκηνῆς τοῦ βίου τῶν ταλαιπώρων ἀνθρώπων ἡ τληπαθὴς φύσις ὡς ἐφόλκια ἐπισύρεται; οἷς ἐκεῖνοι ἐπιφυόμενοι κατωνείδι ζον καὶ ἠτίμουν καὶ περιέσυρον καὶ φυλακαῖς ἀπαρακλήτοις δι καιοῦν οὐκ ἔληγον. ἦν δή που καὶ ἀπὸ μονῶν ἐξέλεγον χρήματα, ὡς ὕλην παθῶν ὑποσπῶντες ταῦτα καὶ τὸ πῦρ τῆς ἐμπαθείας ἐντεῦθεν ἀπομαραίνειν δικαιοῦντες· εἰ δὲ καὶ ταῖς χερσὶν ἐκείνων οἱ σπινθῆρες, ὡς ἔδοξαν, ἐνεσποδιάζοντο, ἡράκλεις, τοῖς ἄλ λων, ὅ φασιν, ἰατροῖς, εἰ ἕλκεσιν ἔβρυον. ὅμως μέντοι μῖσος οὐκ ὀλίγον ἐντεῦθεν σφίσι παρὰ πολλῶν ἐντέτροφε καὶ ἄσπονδος μῆνις, καὶ κατεστύγουν ἅπαντες, ἐκείνων σπενδομένων μόνων οἷς δὴ καὶ ὡς ἰδίοις ἐχρῶντο. πολλοῖς δὲ καὶ πληγὰς ἐνέτεινον βαρείας ἁμαρτεῖν δόξασιν, ἀπὸ ζήλου δῆθεν καὶ ἀκριβείας, τὸ 150 ἀπαραίτητον ἐπὶ πᾶσιν δεικνύμενοι καὶ ἀσυγκατάβατον, ὡς πάν τας μὲν εἶναι ἐν φόβῳ καὶ ἀγωνίᾳ, τοὺς πλείστους δὲ καὶ ἐν καταγνώσει λογίζεσθαι. πάντα δ' ἀνέτρεπον καὶ συνέχεον διὰ τὴν νομιζομένην ἀκρίβειαν κατὰ τὰ Ἀναξαγόρεια χρήματα. οἱ δέ γε τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὁρῶντες τὰ πλεῖστα μὲν καθ' ἑαυτοὺς κατε μέμφοντο, ὑπομιμνήσκοντες δὲ καὶ τῷ πατριάρχῃ προσαναφέ ροντες ὅτι πολλοὶ παρὰ τῶν ἀγρίων ὑπηρετῶν πληγὰς ἀνηλεῶς ἐλάμβανον, ὡς δῆθεν τὰ πολλὰ μηδ' εἰδότι, κατεγινώσκοντο ὡς ἀταλαιπωρήτως ἔχοντες περὶ τὸ καλόν, ὥστε τῷ μὴ τὸ κακὸν ἐκτόπως μισεῖν μηδὲ τὸ καλὸν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ὑποδέχεσθαι μέτροις. ἦν γάρ, ὡς