John Cassian: A Study in Primitive Monasticism

JOHN CASSIAN A STUDY IN PRIMITIVE MONASTICISM

OWEN

CHADWICK

FelUw <$ Trinity Hall Cantbrktgt

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CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1950

PUBLISHED BY THE S Y N D I C S OF THE CAMBTUDGE U N I V E E S I T Y PRESS

London Office; Bentley Howe, u.w.i American Branch: New York Agitltt for Canada, India, and Pakistan: Macmillan

Prhtttd irt Gr«e Britain at tfu Vnipenity Pros, Qmbtidfr (Brooke CratthUy, Unipensty Printer)

TO

M, Ρ* C H A R L ï S W O R T H

CONTENTS Prefatory Note Abbreviations Chapter h P R E P A R A T I O N 1. 2. 3· 4. 5. 6. 7.

The study of Cassian Bethlehem Egyptian monastidsm T h e Conferences The Origenist controversy Chrysostom Gaul Chapter IL T H E M O N A S T E R Y

1. 2. 3. 4* 5�

The three counsels Admission of novices Wort Worship Acts of mortification Chapter ΙΠ. T H E C O N Q U E S T OF S

1. 2. 3. 4* 5+ 6» 7. 8.

The origins of ascerical theology The spirituality of Evagrius T h e actualts vita Flesh and spirit The goal The principal sins Tlic motive of the life of virtue The virtues Chapter IV. GRACE

1. Saint Augustine Z. The controversy 3« The doctrine of Cassian VU

CONTENTS

page i2<S

4> The thirteenth Conference 5. The reply of Prosper 6* Conclusion Chapter W. 1. 2. 3^ 4* 5. 6. 7. 8.

134 13*

T H E LIFE OF C O N T E M P L A T I O N

Sinlessness The mind Prayer and pure prayer Contemplation Negative mysticism Scripture De Ittcarnatiorte The monk and Christ

139 140 141 147 148 151 153 162

Chapter VI.

ACHIEVEMENT

16S

1. Influence 2, Saint Benedict 3* Achievement

174 178

Appendices A. B. C. D.

Chronology The birthplace of John Cassian The monastery of Saint Victor Cassian and the Celts

187 190 199 201

Bibliography 1. The works of John Cassian 2. Studies and general works relating to Cassian 3. Studies relating to Evacrius

204 204 208

Index

209

viii

PREFATORY

NOTE

A number of friends have helped in the preparation of this introduction to Cassian. I must make particular mention of the learned and friendly criticism of Dr Norman H. Baynes and of Dr W. Telfër, Master of Selwyn College, both of whom have laboriously and kindly perused the manuscript and offered wise suggestions* I also owe much to the enthusiasm and scholarship of the Reverend M. P* Charlesworth, President of St John s College. Mrs N . K, Chadwick of Newnham College, and the Reverend Henry Chadwick* Fellow of Queens* College, have have helped me with the proofs: and Mr Martin Chadwick of Trinity Hall undertook the ungrateful work of preparing the index. I am alone responsible for any errors. W.CXC.

IX

ABBREVIATIONS CE

Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Coil

Collationes.

CSEL

Corpus Sariptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum.

DACL

Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et de Liturgie.

DCA

Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.

DCB

Dictionary of Christian Biography.

De Inc. De Incarnathne Domini contra Nestonum. DSAM

Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, d*Ascétique et de Mystique.

DTC

Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique.

ET

English Translation.

HL

Palladius, Historia Lausiaca,

HM

Historia Monackorum in Aegypto.

Inst.

De Instituas Coenobiorum.

JTS

Journal of Theological Studies.

NPNF

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Series.

OCP

Orientalia Christiana Periodica.

PQ

Mignet Patrologia Graeta.

PL

Migne, Patrologia Latina.

RAM

Revue d'Ascétique et de Mystique.

RFT

Basil, Regulae Fusius Tractatae.

RHE

Revue ^Histoire Ecclésiastique.

TQ

Theologische Quartaischriß.

VS

La Vie SpirituelL·

XI

CHAPTER ι

PREPARATION In the year A.ü. 378 the Gothic horsemen who rode down the emperor Valens and the heterogeneous detachments still known as the Roman army, initiated upon the plains of Adiiauople the last phase in the decline of western Roman civilization. German pressure, intermittent through so many centuries and now increasing under economic necessity, was proving that the once youthful Rome could no longer find the social and miÜtary vigour to maintain the traditional Rhine-Danube frontiers, that civilized society was losing the internal strength which justified its survival The two bonds which prevent the disintegration of a state or a community—on the one hand self-interest, on the other loyalty, however expressed—had throughout the empire been slowly rotting. While in the city of Rome itself a group of aristocrats was preserving within its little circle an archaic faith in the traditions, customs and gods of the old world, in the provinces the degradation of any true public spirit was displayed by the corruption and incompetence of the central and local administration. The discovery of an honest official might cause surprise to his colleagues ι1 and thefinancialinterests of bureaucrats who wished toreapthe maximum profit from almost destitute barbarians had invited the disaster of Adrianople. And although vigorous leaders and meritorious citizens were not wanting, there seemed no moral force in the state, no cry of patriotism nor call to selflessness, which could elicit the wholehearted allegiance and endorsement of the bulk of the provincials. Where spirit is departed, a state may survive and evoke new loyalties if it can meet the physical needs of the governed and provide necessary services; but to a large fraction of the population the Roman government appeared to bestow little advantage and some injury. The Cromwellian dilemma, present since the fall of the Republic, whether the military despotism upon which government in practice rested ' C£ Augustine, Confess. VMo. and the sadly frustrated questions of the impend official» ibid, vinr 6. eje

]

r

JOHN CASSIAN

could be not only veiled but transformed, remained unresolved: and the failure to settle the constitutional problem had eliminated the ultimate possibility of securing from the governed more than a passive consent. When the army had been recruited from Romans or Romanized auxiliaries, it was possible for the provincials to believe that Rome itself was ruling and protecting; but the steady infiltration of non-Romans into the legions, which during the fourth century were beginning to incorporate not only individual barbarians but unassiinilated groups, and the increasing reliance of the high command, in its desperate search for man-power, upon * federated1 German or Hun tribes, were imperceptibly altering the relations between the civil population and the military authorities with whom lay the control of the state. The ordinary citizen could sense that sometimes his defenders represented less the venerable initials S.P.Q.R. than the personal interests of the Roman or barbarian generals, and that they sustained a pervading bureaucracy which to many appeared an odious instrument of financial extortion. Moreover the economy of society was changing. The peasants and the inhabitants of the impoverished and shrunken towns were reverting towards a local system, the distant prelude to feudalism; and consequendy the central government was no longer so necessary to the merchants and farmers whose interests of exchange were confined to a small area. Yet the imperial superstructure* too heavy for its weakening economic base, remained a burden: and the government tried to rivet the population into hereditary trades and to exact taxes which fell unfairly upon the urban survivors of the middle class. The iron bands of society pressed upon citizens who perceived neither purpose nor profit in that society. Though the people could not conceive a world without Rome, they had ceased to desire the present dispensation. For the able, the discontented, the oppressed, the social system held little hope: and for some there could be but one answer—flight; flight to the countryside and the great estate, flight to the woods and the mountains, flight to the brigands and the barbarians. The problem before the government consisted in finding some moral force to fight the corruption of public spirit and inspire the populace with a revived faith in Rome and a loyalty to Rome's 2

PREPARATION

representatives. The upper classes believed in the genius of Rome, 'that city which still holds up the world', 1 as a writer expressed it early in the fourth century; yet the belief, based finally upon a natural inability to conceive any alternative, disclosed its lack of realism and spiritual foundation in (for example) the efforts of cultured nobles to prevent the army from drawing troops from their estates in a crisis. Constantine and his successors may halfconsciously have hoped to find the social medicine within the Christian Church, to use Christian morality and self-sacrifice to bolster and invigorate the social order; ultimately a vain hope, for it took no account of the (to them) incomprehensible development of the economic structure. But the new Christian Empire met with some measure of success in the inculcation of a spirit of loyalty to the reigning dynasty and in the incorporation of the bishops, in spite of their theological preoccupations, into an upright and popularly representative form of civil service. Yet it was barely possible for the Church, an organism which had passed three centuries in suspecting the government, regarded the martyrs as its heroes, and was including the Apocalypse in its canon of Scripture, to reverse the whole trend of its thought in a few years. The martyrs had stood against secular society, it was therefore likely that many Christians would continue to stand against an officially Christian society. It is a truism that thought is in certain ways sociologically conditioned. In the fourth century the social outlook drew from the Gospel that clement which seemed so accurately to fit its spiritual needs—the demand to reject the world. Already the success, among a limited clientele, of the Neopiatonist and Manichsean otherworldlincss had shown upon the spiritual side a symptom of the contemporary social malady. Pagan or Christian, Athanasius or Julian the Apostate, the fourth century was otherworldly. The text 4 Come ye apart and be separate* in order to find God away from mankind, away from the world, called forth a sure response. The alliance of Church and state, bringing with it huge benefits to Christianity in freedom for expansion and ability to influence the whole tone of society, had brought also its notorious penalty, 1

Loctantius, Insdi. vir. 25. j .

3

L3

JOHN CASSIAN

nominal churchman ship. The pagans who flocked into the Church were bound to alter the ethos of the once persecuted body ; factions could fight in the streets of Rome when a new Pope was elected, a profitable trade could develop in the growing and uncritical cult of relics, popular vigils could acquire a reputation for immorality. The too flourishing Church could not inspire secular society, even if the austere theology of the age had allowed, since it came itself under the world-rejecting condemnation of the finer men. Here and there a rare spirit might preach the modem criticism that society must be saved by action, not avoided by escape: *Why retire to the desert ? This is not to fight but to run away/* These protests could have little influence in an environment dominated by a theology which taught that forsaking the world meant not only escape from sin but abandonment of the secular life of the age. The future thus lay inexorably with the Christian practitioners of otherworldliness, the ascetics who throughout the fourth century were building in Egypt and Syria the foundations of monasticism. In northern Egypt the retirement of Antony to his hermitage had kindled popular enthusiasm from the prepared fuel of otherworldly desire and had spurred a growing throng to leave their homes for the life of the desert. At times the movement, in its early forms and even its eccentricities, resembled closely the less widespread retirements practised by non-Christian philosophers or sects; and although a regular order of monks, almost in the later sense, was soon established by Pachomius in the south of Egypt, it was not at first apparent where the rush to the desert would end, and how it would affect the world and the Church. Yet the movement carried the only ideal which in those times could win the assent and devotion of the best men. It was therefore important, for the sake of civilization and the Church, that this ideal should be guided into sane channels, that Roman sobriety should transform the exotic fanaticism of Egypt into a constructive movement which might find a place as part of medieval social life instead of standing outside it; and might find room within itself for learning and the seeds of new culture on the one side, on the other for spirituality and self-sacriftce, not only as ends in 7

VigUantius ap. Jerome, Adv. Vig. î6.

4

PREPARATION

themselves but as the inspiration of the Church in its struggle through the early Middle Ages against worldliness, barbarity and paganism. The process of transformation must take time : in its origins an impetus was given by the monk, John Cassian of Marseilles. 1. THE STUDY OP CASSIAN

John Cassian has not received adequate study from ecclesiastical historians. Not only was he the teacher of Benedict and one of the principal architects of the western monastic system; through the charge of the Benedictine Rule that his writings should be read in religious communities, his teaching upon the ascetic life and the road to perfection dominated the origins and affected the spiritual ethos of medieval and modern rnonasricism. His work has permanently influenced the Christian life and culture of Europe through, its effect upon the form and diffusion of the western ascetic movement. St Benedict was the master�builder; but Cassian provided for him much of the material and a number of the tools. Yet to many who are intimate with Benedict his great predecessor has remained unknown. To take one example, the only English historian of that period of Gallic ecclesiastical history up to A.D. 550, T. Scott Holmes {The Christian Church in Gaul, London, 1911), in a book of 567 pages devoted some ten pages to one who was clearly the most momentous figure of the Church in Gaul at that epoch. Γη spite of the recognition of his far�reaching influence by such writers as Dom Cuthbert Butler and Professor David Knowles, surprisingly few scholars made any serious study of the man and his work, in the English language the only scholarly account ofhis life and estimate of his importance is to be found in a brief but admirable essay of fifteen pages, written by E. C. S. Gibson in 1894 as a preface to the translation of his writings in vol. xi of the Nicene and Post�Nicene Fathers Series. This remarkable lacuna does not owe its existence only to the accidents of academic researcri. There are evident reasons why historical study should neglect Cassian. To many his moralizing and homiletic instructions have appeared interesting only to the monks, while the monks themselves have been circumspect in their dealings with one whose name is tinged with the faint flavour of semi�Pelagian heresy. Devotional addresses of doubtful 5

JOHN CASSIAN

orthodoxy do not present promising material for the ecclesiastical historian. Moreover, his life seems at first sight to touch too many different and independent spheres to provide a sufficient unity for study. Inasmuch as he plainly affected monasticism he has been examined in connexion with monastic history; his contribution to the controversies of grace has been described by writers on Pelagianism and its offshoots; the author of the De Incarnatione was necessarily if cursorily treated by students of NcstoriamstrL These diverse aspects apparently provided no common factor apart from the personality of the man himself, upon which insufficient evidence was available for any weighty judgement. The appearances are in part deceptive. The present investigation has resulted in die conviction that his personality and writings do in fact form a unity. It will be seen later that the doctrinal work De Jncarnatione is not unrelated to the two monastic works the Institutes and the Conferences* but radier provides one key to a true understanding of them. Similarly the semi-Pelagian controversy, regarded from Cassian's angle, is integrally bound with his teaching on the spiritual life. The fact that we are left without adequate means of assessing his personality is itself a clue. For he consciously sought obscurity and selielimination. In his three books he attempted to eradicate the traces of his own personality, presenting the antithesis of that religious phenomenon which in Newman has been dubbed * autocentrism * by Bremond. St Augustine could write the Confessions expressing his own personality, watching his own soul being turned and transformed by grace. Cassian could never have written the Confessions. The desire for the 'hidden life* is rooted in his oudook, a rigid self-erïàccmcnt which has consciously taken up the cross of obscurity. * I am lowly and obscure as I deserve', he once wrote. 1 In the Prefaces to his published works he asseverated his desire for the 'harbour of silence V professing his regret that he had been called thence by public duty; and these expressions tally wiüi his whole cast of mind and cannot only be the coy offspring of fifth-century rhetoric, 1

De ItuamatiotK Vilr $i, r. The best edition is that of M. Petsehenig in vols, xm and xvn of the CSEL· Sometimes I have used Gibson's translation in NPNF, and have then placed "(Gibson)" after the reference; sometimes I have preferred to make my own translation. * CUIL T-3L praeC yt De Int. ptaef. i.

6

PREPARATION

The circumstances of his career drew him far from the quietness for which, he hoped. An eastern ascetic practising the spiritual life in the west between the years A.D. 410 and 435, a time so crucial in the development of western monasticism, could not escape eminence and publicity. The evidence shows that at least between 425 and 430 Cassian became one of the two principal figures in the Latin Church, second only to St Augustine. Yet his selfelimination and the suspicions of the orthodox have combined to hide even the outstanding events of his life. Although his posthumous reputation did not at first allow him the cult of a saint, it is astonishing that no Vita Cassiani should be written when there are extant many lives of Gallic saints ranging from the work of Sulpicius Severus to the trivial legendi associated with any Merovingian wonder-worker.1 One wonders why some later Massilian monk did not compose a life of Cassian. In such enterprises a knowledge of the facts was not considered an invariable prerequisite. 2. BETHLEHEM

This desire for obscurity, innate or acquired, has no doubt increased the uncertainty shrouding his early career before the publication of the Institutes. Questions have even been raised about his correct name, which only two of his contemporaries casually mention.* Reams of paper have been expended in the attempt to discover where he was born; and if we assert that he apparently spent his childhood in Roman Scythia, now the Dobrudja, the statement remains mere probability^ His family, which included at least a sister, nurtured him in an affluent and pious household where a private tutor instructed him in classical literature, a fascinating study to the youth who found in later years that during r

His life influenced the legends of other Qusians, St Cassian of Autun was aid to have travelled from Egypt to Marseilles, One hagiographer of St Cassian of ïmola places his death * in the reigns of Theodosius and Valentini»n\ an astonishing date for a martyrdom and a dear assimilation from the extant information about John Cassian. * Palladius in the Dialogm m ike Lift U/Chrytostom m; Innûcent Ι αρ. Sozomen. Hiit. Ecd, viu. 16, Prosper and Pope Cekstiac do not mention his name though they refer to him, Petschenig {CSEL xvn, p, i) discusses the problem. It is certain that Johanne} Cassianus is correct. 3 Sec Appendix B.

7

JOHN CASSIAN

time of prayer he could not prevent his mind wandering to the 1 enchanting legends and military sagas of his childhood, His adult complaints show that he came to regard secular literature as an irritating distraction of the devil: only thrice, and in the least monastic of his books, does he quote sentences drawn directly from classical authors—Virgil, Cicero, Pcrsius—though reminiscences of other writers occur.* The urban population of the Dobrudja was bilingual; and from the instruction received at home and perhaps at school he developed into a cultured and accomplished young man able to converse on equal terms with Greek ascetics in their own language and to write lucid and graceful Latin without a trace of the barbaric forms and the medieval grammar which were then beginning to enter common usage in the west 3 His easy�flowing phrases persuaded a modern scholar to picture him attending the lectures of some Balkan professor of rhetoric and led Cassiodotus, whose critical faculty often succumbed before devout subject�matter, into describing his stylistic charm and eloquence in superlatives.4 At some unknown date, probably not earlier than 378 nor later than 388, accompanied by an older friend and fellow�countryman named Germanus, he sought admission to a monastic community near the traditional cave of the Nativity at Bethlehem. The circumstances disposing him to this resolve and the age at which he fulfilled it are equally unknown. Because he often describes this community as the director of his own ' boyhood *, most writers have assumed that he reached Bethlehem still in adolescence. Throughout later Latin puer is an elastic term, and as he usually, though not always, qualifies these references by the implication that he means the early years of his entry into the religious 1

/«if. XL 18; CoB. XXIV. I. Z,

1

Colt. xrv. 12; I > lac. vi, o, 2, VI. 10.5. The Virgil quotation in Deine m. ι j . 4. from Aeneid m 891�2, k not noticed by Pecschenig. Abel in Studien über den gattischen Presbylerjohmaes Cassianus, pp, 24-30» laboriously investigated CasaianTs classical background and found other references to, and reminiscences of, Virgil, Horace, Sallust, and perhaps Ovid; though he was a little indined to overstate his case. 5 Coli xvi. 1, where Abbot Joseph speaks elegantissima Greek, For a study of Cassian'» Latin, see Paucker ht Rûmanisthe Forsthungm (ißSö), pp. 301-44S, « Schwartz, Zeitschrift JA. Heutest. Wiss. xxxvm, p. a; 'facundissinmV and *elûquentÎBsimusT in Casiodorus, Expos, in Pj. υαχ, ι and Div. Lett. ptae£ S

PREPARATION'

state,' the evidence does not forbid the supposition that he entered the community as a young man* The Greek Horologion, not exempt from the customary temptation of devotional calendars to retail hagiographical speculation, commemorates on 29 February a Cassian who had turned to asceticism after a military career. In the fourth century Scythia and the Danubian provinces remained an area from which the decaying Empire could still draw manpower for its armies—the great general Aerius was born at nearby Dorostorum a few years after Cassian;* and it is just possible that our monk fought as a young man in the Gothic wars of 377�9 and that the disaster of Adrianople, in which some have seen the substantial end of the old Empire, furthered the impetus to fly from a tottering civilization to find a more permanent ideaL The theory that he had already reached adult years at Bethlehem meets the puzzling tlimculty that a child should have entered a religious community so far from his native land (possibly not Scythia but certainly not Syria or Palestine). But boyhood itself would not prevent acunission to membership of the monastic family; the custom of receiving children was already recognized. A contemporary Isaac is reported to have begun his ascetic life at the age of 3 seven* 1

For the Bethlehem monastery, Inst m\ 4. i t rv. 31; Coti. χι, 1 and j , amc. 1. 3 ; for Germanus, Ceilr 1.1. CoU. xrv� 9.4 shows that Cassian was the younger; they are assumed to be compatriots throughout: Coli, xxrv; c£ Tülemnntj lA4m. Bed. aav. 100. They were not related: Coti. xvt. i, 'non camali sed spiritali fi-atemitare devincti'. For youth and childhood in connexion with the beginnings of his religious life, cf. Inst. m. 4.1 : Christ nourished 'nostram adhuc in rehgione tenetam ct lactantem infantiam'; Coti, XL I ; 'primafideinidimenta1. References with no explicit mention of religion: Coil, xvn, 7- l a parvuhV; pracf 4: 'apuetitia*. 1 Jordanes, Cetica xxxrv. 17a; cf. Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum π. β. ' PaUadius, Dial. xvn. A father who wishes to become a monk would take hk son with him into the cocnobium, e.g. P&iermucius in Inst. W. zj* ^ d other instances cited by Bcwe, Les Maines d'Orient, pp. 110�24, Basil* RFT xv, will not allow children to make profession until they have attained years of discretion. The work of training children was normally regarded as the duty of the cocno� Vmirrt Evagrius will not allow children to live with solitaries, Rer. Mort. Rat. 5, in PG XL. i2j<S; cf, the remark of Macarius in Verba Setiiotwn xl. n: 'When you see children in Scetc take your cloaks and leave/ The custom of fathers entering with their sons, and the difficulty that Cassian y

JOHN CASSIAN

Outside the congregation rounded by Pachomius, local regulations would vary according to the community. Entry to Bethlehem was easy. In no age have many religious houses raised exacting difficulties about the addition of young recruits from educated and opulent homes; but since at least one other stranger was welcomed without question into the coenobium, the elders of Bethlehem evidently did not respect persons. Monastic thought of the late fourth century regarded the two principles of chastity and poverty as binding upon every ascetic: and the third counsel, though much weakened by the original Antonian desire for the solitary life and by the constitutional uncertainty over the person or persons to whom submission was made, required from the coenobite an observance sufficient to create delicate scruples about disobedience. Within a very few years Cassian would flagrandy repudiate his eoenobîtic obligations: but the repudiation for a short time harassed his conscience. During the autumn of 386 Bethlehem witnessed the arrival of Jerome with his feminine retinue. But the suggestion that Cassian became a member of the monastery built by Jerome cannot be entertained. Later he would read Jerome's work, both originals and translations; in the D i Incamatione he quotes with acknowledgement the twenty-second letter (to Eustochium), and he knows, though he does not always use, the Vulgate translation. The writings of Jerome 'the Catholics' teacher\ he declared, sparkle through the world like divine lights.1 That an admiration for the work could accompany hostility to the person is proved entered a monastery far from his native country, led Lombard (Jean Cassien, p. 7) erroneously to suppose that Grrmanus was his lather. Gaïet thinks that the Cassian in Ep. 1. 300 attributed to Isidore of PeUmum in PC Lxxvm. 361, is this Cassian, because both Isidore and Cassian were disciples of Chrysostottu In the letter the writer speaks of Cassian as having fled from a fallen and wicked (by which he probably meant secular) life to become a monk. Chronology makes this identification just possible Kit not probable. 1 Inst, pracf, ; De Inc. vn\ 26.1 ; Petschenig {CSEL xvn, pp. Lccviiiftt) examines Cassian's use of the Vulgate. Following a suggestion by Pargoire, S. Schiwictz, Dos Morgendlândisehe Mönchtum π. 153, identified Casaian's house with that of Poemcnjon mentioned by the Latiiac History xxxvi (the same chapter contains PalladWa faint praise of Jerome). The name implies ths site where the shepherds were thought to have seen the angelic vision; cf Epiphanius (a monk of the ninth century}, Eaarrdtiv Syriw in PG cxx. 264. 10

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by the reluctant tribute of the unfriendly Palladius, but no extant evidence shows Cassian's opinion of Jerome himself. If he did not set out for Egypt until the latest possible date which chronology allows, the year 390, his own Greek community would not have fraternized overmuch with the colony of Latin pilgrims; even though in these early days local feeling had not turned into the implacable hatred exhibited by the populace to wardsJerome during the Pelagian controversy. But probably he had left Bethlehem before Jerome's arrival The experience of the coenobium, though temporary and inadequate and to us obscure, produced in Cassian's life two cardinal results. In the fourth and fifth centuries the leadership of asceticism lay not with the corporate, or coenobitic, communities but with the more individualistic semi�hermits of Egypt who by their prolonged isolation and severe austerities had won such fame that a pilgrim would journey to the mountain of Nitria and the marshes of the Nile delta with the same pious spirit as he visited the holy places of Palestine. Contemporary ascetic thinkers and writers, with the weighty exceptions of Basil and the earlier Pachomians, believed the hermit life superior in the eyes of God to the coenobitic life on the ground that it met sterner difficulties and fostered deeper devotion. Throughout the west the individualistic ideal, propagated by returning pilgrims and wandering ascetics, was gaining ground under the impetus given by noble personalities like Martin of Tours. No foundations for an enduring monasticism could be laid until the west also had acquired coenobitic experience and tradition. Cassian, though he remained to the end under the Antonian influence, would provide guidance for the western communities. Until he was invited to lead a partially coenobitic movement, these brief years at Bethlehem represent the only period during which he received the training and impressions necessary as a background to that side of his work. A second momentous result of his sojourn in the coenobium arose from a strange accident which affected his outlook and his future. He shared a cell with Germanus, a practice then common in the east, though later vigorously condemned by ascetical writers. An old man who knocked at the door of the house and asked to be received as a novice was permitted by the superior to ΤΓ

JOHN CASSIAN

occupy the cell of the two friends* After a few months it chanced that some pilgrims who had come from Egypt to pray at the holy places visited the monastery and, recognizing the unknown as the famous superior of a large community near Panephysis in lower Egypt, revealed his history. He was Abbot Pinufius (ahha, father, does not necessarily imply the ruler of a monastery at this date); and his reputation for sanctity had spread until it appeared to him so urgent to escape pride and responsibilities and disciples that he secretly fled from the coenobium to the south: then he sought entry to the house of Tabennisi, the community founded by Pachomius, Here he was employed for three happy years as the assistant gardener while the monks of Panephysis scoured Egypt for traces of their missing superior. Visitors to Tabennisi at last found him turning the soil and bringing manure, and brought him back to his own community with reverent but careful precautions that he might not escape. But the cares and prestige of his renewed office drove him again to flight, this time by ship to Palestine and so to the cell of John Cassian, only to be discovered a second time and escorted home. Sparing in the use of anecdote, Cassian twice relates fully the 1 career of Pinufius. The startling discovery must have made its mark; and the recapture of his cell�mate probably begot or strengthened in him the desire for obscurity which we later find. More immediately it brought to a head the aspiration of the two friends to see the nursery of these ascetic prodigies, to travel to Egypt for the purpose of experiencing for themselves Egyptian monachism. This ambition was not unusual. Sight�seeing, advocated by preachers anxious to stir their congregations to emulation,5 was so common a practice that the Egyptian solitaries could complain that visitors substituted άώ. excursion to the great 3 ascetics for any attempt to live the ascetic life themselves. But the elders of the Bethlehem coenobium were not anxious that two young monks should embark on a joumey where there would be neither obedience nor discipline; and Cassian later recognized that 1

Inst. rv. 30; CoUr xx, r�a. * Cf t Chrysostxnn's appeals to his congregations to visit the Syrian ascetics, e.g. Horn, in Mattk 6*. 5, 70, j , 73. 4. 3 See the complaint of John of Lycopolis in HM1 {PL xa. 397) : cf. Piamun in Ceil. xvm. 3. 2. 12

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they left Bethlehem after too short a training.1 They were forced into giving an oath that they would return with all speed, and then received permission to make a hurried tour of the hermits and communities of Egypt.4 3. EGYPTIAN

MONASTICISM

When Germanus and Cassian disembarked at Thennesus near the eastern mouth of the Nile, somewhere about the year 385 or after, Egyptian asceticism was reaching its zenith. The fresh vigour of the original impulse given by St Antony had not exhausted itself: the difficulties of success and the dangers inherent in popularity, though latent, had not yet disclosed their poison. Abandonment of the decaying civilization, aloofness from the urbanized Church, the nobility of self-sacrifice, the delight of silent communion with God in solitude, still evoked eager desire for the rapturous joys reported of the earliest hermits. So much is clear from the wistful recollections of Cassian and Palladius. Preachers could (apparendy without ridiculous hypocrisy) compare the ascetics to angels, living without pride or greed or lust or worldly stain. The monks, we are told by one enthusiast, are the thrice-blessed light of the world who by their prayers save the earth, cause the rain to fall and the fruit to grow and the Nile to irrigate the country, and have unlocked the gates of Eden closed by Adam's sin.3 There were blemishes upon this supposed spotlessness. We hear of erroneous ideals, false visions, absurd austerities; and we are prevented from hearing more by the zeal of our sources for edification. Yet enough remains. Sufficient devotion and saintliness was visible to convince Cassian soon after his arrival that he had learnt nothing of perfection before coming to Egypt, that to leave Egypt again would be a "supreme loss to the spiritual life1.1 All our evidence shows that in 385 the movement still possessed its élan. 1

CoU. sax- 11, 1 : qui ipsas quodacimodo scolas et exerdtationis huius pakestrain, in qua ad plenum exudiri ac pcriici principia nostra debuerant, intempestive intermissa coenobii congregationc dcrdiquimus (Germanus loquitur). * Colt xvn. a. J Letter to iftr Monks by Serapion of Thmuis; cf. Chrysostom, Horn, in Matth. 63-70, 72, But the imperial panegyrics show that the audience probably discounted some of the absurdities in conventional rhetoric. Augustine, Conjess. γι. ο, hints that the secular panegyrist was publicly recognized as a liar. * CoU. xvn. j . 2. 13

J O H N CASSIAN

The ascetics, men and women who undertook a life of chastity and special devotion in fasting and prayer, were recognized as a denned gtoup within the Christian congregations as early as the end of the second century. The self-denying and world-rejecting strain within the Gospel had been strengthened by the persecuting hostility of the Roman state, by apocalyptic expectation, and by those dualist streaks in popular Hellenistic philosophy which found a quasi-Christian expression in Gnosticism. Coteries which later orthodoxy would condemn as heretical, even bishops like Pinytus of Cnossos whom later orthodoxy would extol as saintly,1 were beginning to press the life of celibacy upon their adherents. These ascetics, though they separated from the marriage-bed, the circus, the banquet, had nowhere taken the step of withdrawal from society, had nowhere transformed themselves into monks.2 The causes of withdrawal during the third and fourth centuries have provided the material for one of the prolonged controversies of the learned world. It has been held that the new Christian monachism was a revival or development of the Jewish Therapeutae described by Philo; that it sprang from the community of religious attendants at the temple of Serapis; that it was the natural outcome of flight during the great persecution (this theory dates back to the fifth century) ;* that it was the natural outcome of the end of the persecutions, which removed the chances of martyrdom and allowed an increasing secularization of the Church; that it was the inevitable consequence of the economic maladies of the Empire; finally that it was created by dualist philosophy, according to one theory the dualism of the Hellenistic groups like Neopythagoreans and Stoics, according to another theory the dualism of Mani which is known to have flourished in contemporary Egypt.4 Only the first three of these discordant theses can be ruthlessly dismissed as baseless. But we can now see that a religious movement 1

Euscbiili, Hist. Eccl. IV. 23.7.

* A singular exception, if exception ic be. Is the retirement (anachorcsis) to the desert of Narcissus of Jerusalem during the reign of Caracalk in Euscbius» 3 Hist. Eccl. vi, 9, i - i o . Sozomen, Hist. Bed. L 12. 11. 4 The student will find an impartial criticism of the various theories in Karl Heu3£i, Der Ursprung des Mönaüams (1936), ppr 3ÎS0-304, But Heussi himself relied too much upon the Apuphthegmata as an unsupported source—sec the severe criticisms of Lefott in RHE xxxm (1937), pp. 341-8* 1+

PREPARATION

cannot solely be the product of the external environment, however much circumstances may favour its birth and prescribe the form of its growth. While Hellenistic philosophy and social ills affected the atmosphere in which monachism was generated and flourished, its origins must be sought not in some incident of the envircmment but in the inner compulsion of Christian ascetic needs. In the early years the whole Church was in some sense fleeing the world : but as the long periods of peace allowed the little Christian congregations to grow into crowds, the ascetics needed a more concrete detachment. At first they left the towns to occupy a cell or ruined house within a mile or two of the congregation to which they were attached. But the climate and economy of Egypt permitted stark isolation and an easy livelihood away from the towns. Sooner or later an ascetic would withdraw not only to the nearby countryside1 but to the desert. Whether we know the name of the first to practise this form of retirement is still debatable. But the impetus to imitation came from the Copt Antony whose reputation was advertised to the world after the publication of the Life by Athanasius.* During the fourth century the dim shapes of parties or schools of thought begin to appear. The result of Antonian individualism was a chaos of ideas and practices which soon formed inchoate groups under the influence of experiment and mutual knowledge and educated analysis. The two principal groups may in general be described as Egyptian and Greek, though they so overlapped as to make rigid demarcation unhistoricaL On one side the flight to the desert was a national Egyptian movement, an expression of reviving Coptic culture. The majority of the ascetics, fcllahin in origin, spoke Coptic and conversed with foreign visitors only through an interpreter,5 and were often simple folk without 1

Vita Antonii 3 ; Rufinus, UMprae£ The Athanaaian authorship is now generally accepted, The tame of the work is shown not only by its well-known effect upon Augustine {Confess, vni, 6) but by the probability that more than one Latin translation was made even in Athanasius's lifetime; c£ G. Garitte, Un témoin important du texte de ta »k de S. Antoine (Brussels, 1930), reviewed by Lcfort in Muséon un (1940}» pp^ Mi-3^ i Cassian noted it as exceptional when he was able to confer with Joseph without the assistance of an interpreter. Coil. xvi. 1, Interpreters were themselves monks; cf. HL XXL 1 j ; HM vm
ί$

JOHN

CASSIAN

elaborate or philosophical ideas of spirituality and asceticism. Our sources record one Coptic monk who could not decide whether the Old Testament preceded the New, 1 though the Greeks certainly exaggerated the simplicity of those who could not speak the literary language of the eastern world. Many of the uneducated shared the inclination of much popular religion in that age towards a theological literaiisrrL When theology taught that the hand of God aided men, some imagined a solid hand emerging from the clouds. When theology urged them to seek the * vision of God*, some naturally sought a material vision just as their pagan ancestors had sought to see the person of Asclepios;1 and the visions which they experienced during an intense life of prayer were regarded as concrete confirmation. The simple conceived spirit, pneuma\ as a substance of light which could make its physical presence felt. It would be misleading to apply this literalism to all the Copts, many of whom were educated, were developing Coptic literature, or had passed under the instruction of intelligent Greek theologians. But the attraction of these ideas, dependent partly upon the devotional needs which at a later period would be expressed in the iconodulc instinct, allowed their Greek opponents, when the variance was pushed to a rupture, plausibly to damn the Copts as 'anthropomorphite1.3 That many needed some mental image 1

HM xxxi {PL XXL 45B). For an interesting description of the pagan desire to see Asckpios» cf. 'L'expérience religieuse du médecin Tbc3»lo9% by A, J, Festugière w. Revue Biblique 48 {t-VW)* pp- 45-77' Cf. Maximus of Tyre ix, 7 : Origen, Contra Celsvtn m. 24,, vu. 35> vin. 45: and R. Herzog, Die Wtmdtrheitungen von Epidaurus {1913), 3 The Egyptian Copts must not be confounded with the sect catalogued as Anthropomorphites by Epipbanius, Haer. rxx. According to him. the Anthropomorphites were a separatist sect, founded by a sincere Mesopotamian named Audius at the beginning ofthe fourth century and condemned by an episcopal synod to become a schismatic body with its own bishops and a quartodeciman method of celebrating Easter. By 375 the sect could be found in the Mesopotamian and Syrian area but had declined in numbers. The Egyptians were far from being a sect : Epiphanhis nowhere suggests that the Audians existed in Egypt, and Augustine shows that the Egyptian anthropomorphites were reported not to be members of the Audknbody : ' ouamvis sint quicos in Aegypto eccksäae catholicae communkare asseverent* {De Haeresibus jo). In Egypt 'anthropomorphite' is a malicious term applied by their Origenist opponents to the hterahat Egyptian majority. The doctrinal tendency was not confined to the fourth century; cf.e.g, OrigcnT De Princ. 1. 1 ; Contra Celt. YI. 71, vnr. 49; Cyril of Alexandria in PC LxxvL ιοοί ff. The texts used by the Audians were Matthew v. 8, xviii. 10; Isaiah vi, ere. 1

ιό

PREPARATION

in the constant practice of prayer is shown by the well-known story of Sarapion who, being taught by the Greeks that a mental image was erroneous, found that prayer had become impossible and wept, saying, 'They have taken away my God, and now I have none to whom I may cling, and I know not whom to adore or to worship V As the fourth century advanced, the nationalist aspect of Egyptian asceticism became plainer until at the end of the century the mutual bitterness between Greek monk and Coptic monk allowed an ambitious Patriarch of Alexandria to play one party against the other: by the fifth century the Coptic monks had become the Patriarch's private army in any opposition to the central government, and the Apopktkegmata could transmit the proudly patriotic claim, 'The Egyptian monks conceal virtues which they have and keep accusing themselves of faults which they have not The Syrians and Greeks claim to possess virtues which they have not and conceal the faults which they have/ 2 "While the Antonian monks of the north fell the more under Greek leadership as Greek penetration was largely confined to Alexandria and the northern third of the province, in the south asceticism felt the Greek influence but later turned to hostility against the foreigners. Pachomius, after attempting the hermit hie and one disastrous experiment at a common lite, had founded or instructed several houses where the monks prayed and ate and worked together and maintained a common rule, and where the corporate life was recognized as an higher ideal than Antonian solitude,3 on the ground that a coenobium permitted service to the human race.4 It is doubtful whether all coenobia sprang from his indirect initiative, for the papyri show the existence of Melitian societies early in the fourth centuryt and the efflorescence of coenobia in northern Egypt and Syria seems too swift 1

Coll X.3.S. Apopk. Zeno 3; cf. Lefort, Les vies coptes àe sato Patftome. p. 387 η. i%. * The Coptic documents originally published and translated by Araelincau in Annales du Musée Guimet xvn (i«8o) have been reconsidered and retranslated by Lcfort, Les vies coptes, who has challenged the dominant theory of Ladeuze upon the primacy of the Greek documents. Scholars in general agree with Lefort. But they do not always go the whole way with him, cf. P. Peetem, Le dossier capte de S. PachSme in Analecu Bollandiana txrv {1046), pp. 258-77. * Lcfort, pp. 60-1. î Printed by H. I. Bell, Jaiv and Christians in Egypt {1924), 1

eje

37

7

JOHN CASSIAN

to follow only from the Pachomian example* The hermit�life demands a knowledge of spiritual methods and a skill in their employment which many of Antony's imitators cannot have possessed, and some of the hermit experiments ended in disaster. It soon became evident, even to Antonians who believed nothing superior to the solitary life, that some form of training for future hermits was essential; and hence coenobia arose in northern Egypt, pardy as schools for those who wished to pass to the desert, partly as homes for those who found no vocation to the solitary life* The customs of these communities were affected by the rules of the Pachomian foundations, but they remained autonomous societies wholly outside the Pachomian congregation in which the daughter houses were supervised by the head abbot from his residence at Pbow, Pachomius likewise influenced even the solitaries and the outside world. Jerome translated his Rule, Palkdius eulogized him, Cassian had proposed to visit the south, though in the ecstatic 1 delights of northern spirituality he abandoned his intention; and during the fourth century we can trace among the Antonian centres like Nitria and Scete a growing corporate sense which may be due in part to the gregarious instinct even of hermits, in part to the example of the Pachomians, and which in the fifth century could allow the leader of the originally eremitic brotherhood of Nitria to be described as * abbot* in the coenobitic sense.* But the principles of Pachomius, that a common life was higher in the sight of God, were not generally applied. It was ingrained in eastern thought that association with other men must withdraw the soul from God, that proximity to men must mean distance from God. The doctrine of the hermit that 'unless a man shall say + *Only I and God ate in the world" he shall not find rest' 3 prohibited the life of a community. Moreover a common life was impossible without a regulated and moderate standard of ascetic practice suitable for all souls and all physiques. Therefore the 1

Call. χι. i. Hoch, Lehre des Johannes Cassutnus von Notar und Gnade, p. 4, and Thibaut. L'ancienne liturgie gallicane, p. 114, think that he reached the Thebaid on the ground of Inst. rv. i 4 where be states that he is including "quaedam de Tabcnncsiotarum regulis quorum Thebaide est coenobium'. But contrast Ladcuzc, Le Cénabitisme Palekomien, pp. 271-4^ 1 Apoptt. Theophilus 1 ; Heus», p. 161. 3 Apoph. Alonius 1, iS

PREPARATION

coenobite could not attain the heights of physical maceration possible to the solitary, subject to no control by companions. But in the popular eyes the monks were the martyrs of the new age, and martyrdom found no easy publicity in the restrained practices of the coenobium. The Pachomian type was a valuable experiment, but it controlled only one northern community, Canopus. Although Pachomian discipline influenced the numerous monasteries of lower Egypt where a common fife was practised, the average non�Pachomian coenobium was regarded as a lower stage in asceticism, a training for the young novice, a preparation for solitude; and even among the Pachomians, in spite of a deliciously transparent attempt to claim that Antony himself had admitted their life to be superior to his own/ the founder's enlightened belief in coenobitism as the higher life would later weaken. Hence the more individualistic Antonians were dominating Egyptian monasticism. It has been argued that geography ensured that the outside world would normally equate Egyptian monks with Antonians; that foreign visitors, like Cas1 sian and the Postumian of the Sulpician dialogues and the seven travellers whose experience forms the basis of the Historia Monct� chorum, men responsible for transplanting monasticism from Egypt to other lands, came most readily to those parts of the country easily accessible from the Mediterranean coast. But since the 1 residence of the Pachomian superior was only ten days sailing up the Nile,3 we cannot attribute the supremacy of the Antonians to geography. The ascetical outlook of the age is itself sufficient; if we must look for some external cause, we need only point to the Life of Antony by Athanasius. Pachomianism was not purely Coptic. Pachomius instituted a house for the Alexandrians who came to join him and tried to learn Greek in order to teach them. 4 Thus the early Coptic documents show the influence of the Greek view of the spiritual lite. When however we turn to the Coptic Life ofScknoudi, we observe 4 anthropomorphism* in full force* The familiar and irreverent ι Lefort, pp. 269�70, 3*3�4* Reittcnstcin, HM und HL· p. 3» unnecessarily doubts the existence of Postumian. î Lefort, p. ,390. * Lefort, p. 154; cf. Ladeuze, p. ioo. 1

19

1-2

JOHN CASSIAN

conversations between Schnoudi and Christ1 are an astonishing contrast with the norm of Greek theology and devotion (though we can see similar traces in the sources lying behind the Historia Monackorum) and are accompanied not only by the desire for a material rather than a spiritual vision, but by amoral miracles and an emphasis upon the quantity of external religious practices. The Lift of Schnoudi represents the level towards which the prevalent * anthropomorphism* was leading Egyptian monachism at the beginning of the fifth century. The warmth of Schnoudi's colloquies with the Saviour attracted the average monk more than the cool spiritualizing devotion of the Greeks* Prayer in the Life of Schnoudi is a means of marvels like swift transportation from place to place : prayer in the ascetical theology of Evagrius could be caricatured as a continuous progress towards unconsciousness and could in comparison only represent the ideal of a philosophical minority. In close connexion with the city of Alexandria and some sixty miles to the south-west lie the hill of Nitria and the desert of Scete, the headquarters of the Greek monks and their disciples. Although the Coptic documents and the Conferences show that these areas contained a majority of Egyptians, the Greeks appear until the turn of the century to have possessed the directing authority. When Cassian came, this small Hellenist minority was providing the most thoughtful leadership in the whole movement. Its ascetical principles were founded mainly upon the pre-monastic theology of the Christian Platonists of Alexandria, Writings of Clement and Origen circulated and were memorized at Nitria and in Scete;1 many of the leading figures in Egypt towards the end of the fourth century were influenced by Origen and avowed themselves his disciples. Every non-Coptic document in our possession which is of first-hand importance for the history of fourth-century Egyptian monasticism was written by a man who had been under Origenist influence—Athanasius, the author of the Greek Historia Monackorum, Rufinus, Evagrius, Palladius, and 1

E.gr Mémoires de la Mission Arch. Française au Cairef vol. rr. i {iSSjHi}, pp, 14-17, 5CM77. a Di HL LX we find a commentary by Clement on Amos in circulation. For memorization of Origen* ibid, xi ; cf. LV, 20

PREPARATION

Cassian/ Alexandrian theology provided a background of philosophic spirituality, a refined conception of the spiritual life distant from the popular simplicity of the Copts. Since this Origenist spirituality lies at the base of Cassian's ascetical thought, its examination may be left to a later chapter. The Origenist capital (though even here the majority of the lesser monks were 'anthropomorphite'; for in Scete only one of the four priests was an Origenist*) lay in three main groups, the Mount of Nitria, the desert of Scete, and Cellia, an anchoritic community probably sited some miles to the north of Nitria. Although this type of monasticism was Antonian and individualistic, the thtee localities appear to have provided progressive stages of increasingly severe solitude. On Mount Nitria there lived, according to Palladius,3 some 5000 monks, in separate cells but in fairly close proximity to a great central church whither they ail congregated for worship on Saturday and Sunday* There were similar churches for the same purpose in Cellia and Scete. In Nitria there was a guest-house, though guests were compelled to work if they remained longer than a week, and there were bakers and doctors and other officials serviceable to the community. There was a common form of work, the manufacture of hnen. There was even discipline for erring monks in the shape of a whip hanging on a palm-tree in the church. They did not meet for the hours of prayer, but all worshipped in a common act from their own cells at the ninth hour. Apart from work and austere meals at a fixed time the day was silently occupied in prayer, the saying of the psalter, the memorization of, and meditation upon, Scripture. In Cellia and Scete, though the distances were greater and therefore the silence more intense and human companionship less frequent, the same general principles applied. We must observe that although these Antonian monks were known as solitaries or hermits, they were not solitaries in the most literal sense. There was a common rule of a kind, based on the tradition maintained by the seniorest the ascetics of longest standing, between 1

The Apophlhegntaia, as the product of oral tradition, tall into a dînèrent category. » CoU. x. a, J HL vn. 2; Jerome, Ep. cvm. 14; HAf xxm, Preuschcn, pp. 83-4*

21

J O H N CASSIAN

whom and the juniores there was a clear-cut distinction. Over the community there presided a presbyter, always a monk of great age and experience and probably appointed by a vote of the seniores* Hence we must not think of these men as hermits in the strictest sense. Leclercq1 even calls them scmi-<:oetiobites; a term perhaps appropriate to Nitria but misleading for Scete and Cellia where the cells might be sited some distance from the common church (Arsenius is alleged to have dwelt thirty-two Roman miles away1). We cannot regard Scete as a corporate community of hermits in a Carthusian sense, but we must not overlook their organization, common worship, and increasingly common practice.3 There were four churches with services on Saturday and Sunday, regularized times of meals (there are traces of a common meal in church, a kind of agape), an organization of elders to remind the society of the ecclesiastical seasons, to supervise erring brothers, and probably to administer the alms and oil sent from Alexandria or offered by visitors* The conditions of the desert led after a time to a central control of finance. Since the ascetics had selected barren ground, and since they suspected cultivation because it removed them from their cells, they must maintain Hie by exchanging the products of their labour—baskets, ropes, mats— for food. This exchange was sometimes efiectcd by itinerant camel-drivers : but at other times it might mean a visit to civilization, a haggling in the market, a desertion of solitude* Thus they began to take their products to an official at their church (called a 'guardian' in the Apopktkegmatà4) who organized the exchange and gave the hermit food in return for his basket. Nevertheless the independence of each hermit appears in the variety of practices. One would say fifty psalms, another a hundred; one would take three or four hours' sleep, another believed that one hour of sleep should suffice for any ascetic.5 The absence of discipline allowed free play to eccentricities and errors favoured by the philosophic dualism by which monasticism was surrounded. The ideas of Egyptian Gnosticism, of Neoplatonism and Neopythagoreanism and Mani, preaching in their different ways the necessity for the soul to rise above the evil body by physical 1 4

DACL n. 2, col. Jiz3^ * Apopk. Arsenius 21. Macarius 33; Hcussi, p. îùz. 22

3

Heussi, pp. 160-j. ί Apopk. Arsenius 15.

PREPARATION

self-maceration, influenced the spheres of thought in which contemporary minds must move. Workman 1 collected instances of extreme bodily asceticism which he regarded as due to dualist thought. Many of the common citations are applicable only to Syria. But even in Egypt Athanasius had denounced those who held 'on a pretext of purityT that the natural functions of the body are eviL4 This dualist trend affected ideals and practices. In later thought asceticism consists rather in spiritual than physical mortification; and the discipline of the body became a useful means towards the discipline of the spirit. But where man believes that evil resides in his material body which alone prevents the soul rising to God, he wÜl think the one need to be physical selfcrucifixion in order that the soul unhampered by the flesh may ascend naturally and easily, When the individualist monks threw themselves into wholehearted austerities, they cannot always have discerned the true motive of their actions« When one of them was asked to explain his quaint habits, he framed the graphic epigram, 'My body kills me, I kill it'.3 That bodily practices were coming to be regarded as an end instead of a means is proved by the almost universal assumption that holiness walks pari passu with the rigour of mortification/ We cannot confidently state this dualist or semidualist attitude to be the conscious hypothesis of more than a small section. But its existence cannot be doubted and must not be forgotten in assessing the influences which Cassian must 3

Tili Evolution of the Monastic Ideal, pp. 42 fl". * Ep. XLvm. * HL η. i\ Sozomen, Hist. Ectl. YI. 29; cf. the denunciation of food as άλογοι» HL τ. 3. A Syrian type of practice, the wearing of irons, is found among the Egyptians in HL x i v ; HMvut. 50, Freuschen, p. 49; cf the tomb of Serapion in Butler, HL n, pp, zx 5�0. Apollos censures it in HM ibid. But Chrysostom seems to approve, Horn, de Verb. Αρ. Π. 9 in PG U< 279, 4 Even some of the exceptions are deceptive; cf the monk in HM xvi, Preu� schen, pp. 71�ύ, to whom it is revealed in a vision that he is only as holy as a professional musician or the headman of the neighbouring village or an Alexandrian merchant. But all these are drawn to end their lives as monks: and the moral of the story is given thus by Runnus (PL JCXi, 438) : "si isti, qui sunt in saccule, t&ntum boni operis faciuiu, quantum nos studcrc debemus plus vel amplius in abstinentiae labore eos antecedere ? * The basic assumption has remained ; cf. Coll xrv. 7. Reitzenstein, HM und HL, pp. 36�9, thinks, though without sufficient reason, that the original story was directed against the conception of ascetic superiority and has been worked over and transformed by the source of liuiinus.

^3

JOHN CASSIAN

encounter. Yet the last decades of the fourth century seem to show a moderation of extremism under the growing experience and sense of tradition among the desert societies. In the fifth century we find one of the leading exponents of the Scete tradition upholding a more Christian doctrine: *We were not taught to kill the body but the passions/ * Cassian, in one of his rare Palladian glances, has given us a valuable portrait of the atmosphere and organization prevailing in Scete with his account of Abbot Paphnutius. Though perhaps not a Greek, Paphnutius was an Origenist, and an acquaintance of Evagrius and Palladius. At the time when Cassian and Germanus arrived in Scete, he was filling the office of priest to the scattered soutanes. He had lived in Scete since his youth, occupying always the same cell, which was five miles from the church where even in his old age he was to be found at worship every Saturday and Sunday** Sometimes a passionate desire for complete solitude so overwhelmed him that he plunged further into the wilderness until, so men believed, angels came and ministered to him. The neighbouring anchorites gave him the pleasing sobriquet of Bubalis, the Buffalo, on account of this love of solitude. He insisted when he was over ninety years old in doing all his personal chores without the aid of a younger man. Prom church on Sunday he carried home on his back the bucket of water which had to last him for the week. When he was still young, his spiritual progress caused the chief anchorites to elevate him into the number of the elders. One of the brethren became inflamed with jealousy at what he regarded as unfair promotion. Accordingly one Sunday, when he knew that Paphnutius was at church, as envious ascetic slipped into his cell and concealed a book among ths palm-branches which Paphnutius had been weaving into a basket, and then ran quickly to attend church. At the end of the 1

Apoph. Poimcn 1&4, * Coll. in. 1. This Paphnutius is not the Paphnutius of HM xvi, who lived in the Thebaid. For the various references to a monk of this name, see Butler, HL n, pp. 2-24-5, Cassian's hero seems to be the same »3 Paphnutius Kephaks in HL XLViL Butler thinks that in his account of the Conference given by Paphnutius {Coif, m) Cassian has drawn at one point on PalladWs account of Kcphalu* sermon to Evagrius and Palladius. Paphnutius's Origenism is proved both by HL xivu and Coti. x. 2-3. 24

PREPARATION

service, he brought a public complaint to Isidore, who was then the priest in Scete, that someone had stolen his book from his cell. The brethren were horrified, for a codex was a prized treasure, and they willingly assented when the accuser suggested that Isidore should appoint three elders to search all the cells. The book was of course found and brought back to the church; and the supposed thief was accused in the face of the whole congregation. Paphnutius, without acknowledging in so many words that he had been guilty of the crime, humbly asked pardon, cast himself down in pubhc repentance, and retired to a prolonged course of discipline by severe fasting and more ardent prayers. At the end of a penitential fortnight, he came to the church on both Saturday and Sunday, not to receive the sacrament, but to lie prostrate in the porch and ask for pardon. Naturally, the story ended happily. The accuser, whose own conscience was not immune, could suffer no longer, and revealed the truth; and he was restored to the congregation by the prayers of the wronged Paphnutius.1 In this narrative we observe the individualistic diversity of solitude and ascetic practices, the corporate discipline of the community, the ranks of elders and juniors; and we find the eccentric and yet heroic humility and sehvsacrifice which desert spirituality proffered as an ideal to its pupils—'heroic* in the sense that it shows the quality of the saga in being larger than life. As heroic poetry conjured a past age of giants, the third and fourth generation of monks described their elders through a glittering haze of nostalgia which the reader of the anecdote cannot escape. The career of one leading Origenist must be briefly described because he inspired and moulded the mind of Cassian. A citizen of Ibora in Pontus, Evagrius had been ordained reader by St Basü and deacon by St Gregory Nazianzcnc.2 After being archdeacon of Constantinople and present at the great Council in 381, he was driven from the city by temptations to his continence and entered the company of Melania and Rufinus on the Mount of 1

CoU. xvnir 15, For a different version of the same story in the Apaphthegtrutta, cf Boussct, p, 72. 1 The evidence for his hie Is mainly contained in HL XXXYIEI ; HM xxvn; Socrates,Hist. Etil. iv. 23 ; Sozomen, Hist, Ecd. VI. jd; Gcnnadius xi: cf. ZockJcr, Evagrius Pontikus (Munich, 1893), 25

JOHN CASSIAN

Olives; until, a few years before Cassian passed by the same way, he sought the Egyptian * perfection', living for two years in Nitria and afterwards moving to the less crowded Cellia. Here, apart from visits to Alexandria for discussions with the professional philosophers,1 he lived for fourteen years until his death in 399.' His practices combined extreme asceticism with the production of literature expounding the Origenist ideal, In his fights against the demon of fornication he stood for whole winter nights naked in a well, he never consented to a bath, his food was repellent and scanty. Either his austerities or the publication of his books soon won him, according to the Historia Monackorum, a reputation as the leading Greek of those communities. Visitors like Palladius studied under him.5 Cassian and Germanus must have met him when they came to Cellia. Prom 385 to $99^ a period covering almost exactly the stay of Cassian in Egypt, Evagrius was the outstanding representative and the chief theologian of the Origenist conception of the ascetic life. Later we shall have frequent occasion to notice traces of his doctrine in the theology of Cassian.4 4, THE

CONFERENCES

Evagrius had lived only a few years in Egypt when Cassian and Germanus sailed from Palestine and landed at Thcnnesus, It is likely that they had decided to seek their erstwhile cell-mate Pinufius in his coenobium nearby. By a local bishop they were soon introduced to groups of solitaries living in the salt marshes of the delta: and thus began a series of * conferences \ The collatio was a usual practice among the ascetics. It had sprung from the belief of the desert that the fathers and saints had merited a peculiar indwelling of the Holy Spirit which guided them and lent higher authority to their words. In the Apopkthegmata the young students ,

1

HM xxvii, Preuschcn, p. 86. Zuckler, p. 17, calculated A,D, 400 and Butler at first agreed, 1, p. i£i ; hut on second thoughts Butler, n, p. 245, preferred 3 09. the date given by Tûlemont, Mémoires χ. 379, If the avowed Origenist Palladius was present at his death, HL xxxviif. ti, the year must be right. 3 HL xir, I, xxm. i, xxxv. 5. 4 There is no direct evidence that Cassian met Evagrius in Cellia, but MarsUi {Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontiea, pp. 81�6) establishes a very strong prob*� bility. 1

26

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repeatedly demand of their ' pneumatic * elders, * Father, speak to me a word by which 1 may live'; and the custom of extended discourses and dialogues upon spiritual problems must be as old as the simple logia which oral tradition has preserved. The practice of * conference', which was otdered by the Rule of Pachomius and survives to the modern age, attained an official status the more quickly because it conveniendy met the need for spiritual direction. Germanus and Cassian travelled through lower Egypt visiting the communities of the E>elta and the desert of Scete and consulting the veteran exponents of the ascetic life. In later years Cassian wrote his twenty-four Conferences^ in which he supposedly gives summaries of the discussions at which he was present. In the framework to the discourses of the Conferences^ he mentions a few Egyptian legalities and personalities which enable a conjectural map of his travels to be drawn. We know that they moved towards the main centres of Scete and Cellia; that they wortied over the promise of an early return made to the elders of the Bethlehem coenobium until they were urged by the Gteekspeaking Joseph to disregard it on the ground that it was a lesser evil to break a promise than to cease the study of Egyptian asceticism \l that their first visit lasted seven years, and that they paid a second visit after pacifying the Bethlehem community; that they wandered from group to group, from hermit to hermit, spending their days in the saying of psalms or sitting upon mats and listening to spiritual conversation outside the hut of some ascetic. On the basis of these isolated hints, writers like Fleury and Gibson* constructed an itinerary of Cassian's travels in Egypt. But there are so many gaps, the information dropped is so vague, that these accounts must be received with caution. We have in 1

Cassian devoted the whole of Call, xvn to justifying this breach of faith. The Conferences arc written to teach Gallic monks the way of petfcctkin. The question therefore arises, why was this subject, which teaches nothing of peculiar importance for the spiritual life, included in the book? Possibly he had been attacked for this action, or for some similar decision later, and wrote this Conference as an apologia against cricks; or possibly a problem had arisen in Gaul over young monks joining the ascetic movement contrary to the expressed wiD of their famihes. The publication of CoU. xvn brought him new adversaries ; cf. Prosper, Contra Coll vr z, 1 Fleury, Hist. Eat. xx, î-7î Gibson, NPNF xi, pp, 1S4-S. 27

J O H N CASSIAN

fact little information about his personal movements or habits during his Egyptian experiences. The Conférences are not designed as travelogues of the type of the Historia Mottachorwn, since they are intended to be a description of the Egyptian ideal of perfection, not a portrait of Egyptian life. But the question must arise, of what value are the Conferences for the history and ethos of Egyptian monachism ? Can we accept their doctrine as a reliable authority for Egyptian teaching, or must they be classed as the production of Cassian's own mind, as a series of ascetical works which he has fathered on famous Egyptians in order to gain authority? And can wc trust the occasional details and rare narratives of Egyptian life contained in them ? Weingarten1 frankly classified the spiritual and factual information of the Conferences as purely mythological. At the opposite extreme some scholars have imagined that the actual discourses of the ascetics are preserved by Cassian, Since Weingarten's generalization was unsupported by evidence, and since the end of Con-* ference xvn hints that some of the ideas must be attributed to Cassian himself and not to the Egyptian fathers,1 we may disregard both these extremes. But it must be admitted that a fairly weighty case can be indited in favour of treating the Conferences with some caution. The question is important for this reason; if the substance of each Conference was delivered by an Egyptian from whom Cassian has merely expanded, the authority of the work for Egyptian monachism is immensely increased ; if it is the original teaching of Cassian after several years of extra-Egyptian experience, its evidence may be valueless. (a) The literary form of the Conferences at once creates suspicion. Why are they twenty-four in number ? Because, apparently, the number corresponds mystically to the twenty-four elders in Use Apocalypse who fall down before the throne to worship God— hence his writing is an act of worship.3 {This mystical numerology, always popular in the patristic age, he may have caught from 1

Ursprung des M&nehthums, p. 6a. On the other hand, L, Cristktü, Cassien i, pp. ÏO5-9, takes a surprisingly favourable view, though he docs not go so far as Gaaet and the older school. * . . . mûneo, ut quidquid in eis placuerit patrum, nostrum vera sciant esse quod displicet. 3 Coli xxrv. 1. 1. 2S

PREPARATION

Evagrius, whose treatise on prayer was formed in 153 paragraphs like thefishesin the Gospel.1 During his Egyptian travels he must have been present at many more than twenty-four conferences. Yet these twenty-four contain all the matter which he needs to portray his entire ascetical doctrine. It is true that the Conferences do not treat the various subjects in a logical order, though the sequence of thought is rarely impeded. But even in the Institutes, when he is writing under his own name, the order is haphazard and suffers from repetition. Thus all the ascetical theology which he intended to transmit is placed within the selected twenty-four Conferences, and therefore the Egyptian abbots are being made to coriform to a literary convention, (b) The earliest date for the publication of any portion of the Conferences is 425, more than a quarter of a century after his departure from Egypt. Only if he made notes at the time and were still in possession of them would it be possible to hold that even the substance of each discourse has been attributed to its right individual source. Since the two travellers sent *very frequent letters* to describe their pilgrimage to the elders of Bethlehem,* they may have summarized the oracular homilies. But it is unlikely that he would have retained bulky notes through his diverse experiences of exile; his own statement, that his memory of things Egyptian and eastern is fading, suggests a lack of notes ;3 and extraneous material, certainly not spoken by his Egyptian instructors, shows that at least parts of the Conferences (and probably the whole) were not based upon written minutes of actual conversations. (c) This material consists of various literary features which could scarcely be Egyptian in origin. The crucial example is Conference xra attributed to Chaeremon, which provided the only serious argument adduced by Weingarten. Into this Conference Cassian put all the theological writing for his attack upon Augustinianism 1

For Evagrian number symbolism, cf. I. Hausherr in RAM (Jan. 1934), pp. 4 j-o". The number of books in the L\ Incamatsone is symbolic in the same 2 manner; cf De Inc. VL 2. Coti, xvn. jo. 2. 3 ' By so many years am I separated from association with them and imitation of their way of life that I can now hardly keep fresh in mind the things which either I tried to do or learnt or saw -when from my youth 1 dwelt among them... * (IHSL praef. 4). 29

JOHN CASSIAN

during the semi-Pelagian controversy which did not arise as a five issue until 427-8- The suggestion that Cassian's semi-Pelagian opinions are simply a reproduction of Egyptian semi-Pelagianism cannot lightly be dismissed, since eastern asceticism favoured that viewpoint. But this Conference cannot have been delivered, even in substance, by Chaeremon inasmuch as it betrays at every turn too intimate an acquaintance with Augustinian theology, (a*) A study of his historical information forces us to caution in accepting his evidence. His account of the Origenist controversy does not beget a sense of trustworthiness. By bland omissions and without a single proved misstatement he leaves us with an impression which is the precise reverse of the truth. Where the historians described the victory of the anthropomorphites, Cassian allowed his readers to infer that Egypt accepted Origenism and spurned a 'pagan blasphemy'. Hence the only chapters in which his information can be partially checked from other sources prove not so much that he was inaccurate as that he was composing propaganda. There is some taint excuse for Weingarten's application of the word Tendenzdichtungen, To expect from an ascetic writer of that age a subservience to the canons of the historian would be anachronistic and ridiculous. All the publicists of Egypt wrote propaganda, Copts and Origenists alike. But most of the other documents, the Apophtkegmata above all, have remained close to the tradition of anecdotes and logia, and are sometimes little more than collections of raw materiaL Cassian wrote the Conferences to transmit doctrine; and modes of expressing doctrine are personal and allow free play to any preconceptions in the mind of the author. He was working to establish in Gaul the Origenist asceticism. The conception of the spiritual life unfolded in the Conferences descends from Evagrius and the Greek leaders, not from the common level of Egyptian ideas. In the interests of his western policy he naturally described the spirituality of the Greek minority as the unquestioned tradition of all the Egyptians. Yet evidence in the other scale is not wanting. (a) There is little doubt that he met and conversed with the ascetics to whom the Conferences are assigned. A few are known from other sources whose meagre information confirms Cassian's evidence. Others are not known elsewhere; but this suggests that jo

PREPARATION

he was not fathering his theology on famous men in order to win acceptance and prestige—though we have to remember that some of the most famous monks were Origenist and therefore officially disreputable after 400, (b) Butler pleaded that the details of Egyptian life—the food and the dress and the methods of psalmody—are too vivid and 1 plausible to be invented or inaccurate. These details are astonishingly fow in the Conferences—the ascetics* pillows, the papyrus along the Nile, a dinner menu, the salt lakes and the mercantile population of Thennesus. The little narratives at the beginning and end of each homily are the scantiest of conventional frames. His knowledge of the discordances between eastern and Egyptian liturgy is stronger evidence, though he seems to commit one strange blunder in attributing a western ecclesiastical custom to the east.* (c) The Apopktkegmata in their earliest extant form date from the second half of the fifth century but the collection of anecdotes was founded on earlier collections and has preserved material from monks contemporary with Cassian, A small number of Cassiati*s 1

HL ι, p. 206. * Gibson, p. 401 n. Is this due to 'forgetfulness'? And can ' forgetfiilness1 be the solution of the personality of Archebius? In Coll. χι, ï - ï , after first landing in fgypt, Cassian and Germanus are greeted by Bishop Archebius of Panephysis, who had been a famous anchorite. In Coti vn. ai (Serenus speaking) an Abbot Archebius is a famous anchorite living in the desert of Calamus near Panephysis. Presumably the two arc to be identified and Cassian heard stories of the anchorite's prowess before he became a bishop. But in Inst. V, 35-8, Cassian and Germanus as they come from Palestine meet at Diolcos a famous anchorite Archebius. The rite of Diolcos is uncertain, but from CoU. xvm. ι it appears to be the next locality which they visited* and therefore presumably was on a mouth of the Nile Éàirly near to Panephysis, If Cassian is correct there must be two Archcbii, as Cuper in Acta SS. Quly v) p, 470 points out But no one would gather any distinction between them from Cassian, who makes the confusion wone by describing the sah marshes of Diolcos and those near Panephysis in almost the same language. We thus have two famous anchorites called Archebius, probably living fairly close to one another and certainly living in the same type of country. A straightforward reader of Cassian must suppose that there was only one Archebius, as do Gibson, pp, 184, i$6T 4ts n. 3, and Zoekler, Askese und M#nàitumy p. 217- If the two are to be identified. Cassian is inaccurate, since according to Colt. xi. a the bishop did not continue to live the anchorite life while fiilfilling his episcopal functions. All would he solved if we could suppose that Cassian's memory has confined the two visits to Egypt and that they met Archebius as a hermit on the first occasion and as a bishop on the second: but perhaps it is safer to postulate two Archebii, one an anchorite at Diolcos, one near Panephysij,

31

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anecdotes are also found with or without variations in the Apoph� thegmata. The Apopktkegmata version of Coll. xvnt. π (Apoph� thegmata Serapion 4) is evidendy more primitive than CassWs version wherein rhetoric and homiletic have distended the early 1 simplicity of oral tradition* But in spite of these moralizing interpolations Cassian has retained the details of the story as he received it, neither altering nor romancing, A second anecdote strengthens this evidence of faithfulness to his sources. He related how the obedient John of Lycopolis was ordered to water a dry stick twice a day until it grew into a tree: every day for a year he watered the branch until his senior commanded him to cease and threw the branch away. The popularity of this fable in the desert is proved by its appearance in two other sources, the Dialogues of 1 Sulpicius and the Apophihegmata. In both these versions the stick burst into flower, after three years according to the Apopktkegmata, during the third year according to Sulpicius, The narrator in Sulpicius claims to have seen the green tree, and the account in the Apopktkegmata ends with a delightful aphorism»* The old man gave the fruit to the brethren and said, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience" \ Although Cassian refused to exalt wonder�working he can scarcely have changed a story with a miraculous point in order to avoid a miracle offering a reward for the obedience which he was extolling. His version therefore seems based on an earlier version than the others, to be dependent on an earlier stratum of Egyptian stoiy�telbng. Thus we conclude that although he was writing after a long interval he remained faithful to the tradition as he had found it. The Conferences therefore do not provide us with the substance of the teaching of twenty�four Egyptian abbots. We must follow the example of Prosper, who, in attacking Conference xra of Abbot Chaeremon, assailed Cassian and not Chaeremon, in recognizing this literary form to be convention ; and we may accept as true Cassian^ own admission that he has altered and modified the Egyptian teaching to make it suitable for the countries of the west,1 A man who was seeking to build western monastirism • The comparison is made by Boussct, pp, 72�3. Inst. TV, 24; EHal. 1. 19; Apoph. John Colobos 1. * CotL XVDJ, praef, i. 1

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could not be a mere reporter. Cassian was an architect, selecting and adapting his materials, not a historian with a conscious desire to portray Egyptian monachism. At the same time Egypt must be recognized to be the centre of his life and the fount of his ascetical teaching, A convert always associates some place with his conversion; Cassian had first seen his ideal of perfection in Egypt» Constandy he emphasized, in the monastic life, the need for loyalty to tradition, for holding fast to those tried methods of the spiritual life which have been practised and bequeathed by the elders ; and therefore, unless we can convict him of hypocrisy, the bulk of his instructions was directly based upon his Egyptian masters. It docs not appear that his knowledge of Palestine, of St Jerome or St Basil, gravely altered this spiritual idea, though Chrysostom probably broadened his outlook. The portrait of Egypt is one-sided ; for Cassian was an Origenist ascetic who was looking back, not to the whole field of Egyptian asceticism, but to the system of the leading Greek monks* The portrait is idyllic: and the idyll is not only caused by the desire to edify, but by the backward glances at a golden age of monachism, before Origenism had fallen to ruin in the years succeeding A.D, 399. The spiritual ideal is the ideal of the Greek ascetics of Egypt, tempered by the association with St John Chrysostom and formulated through the mind of Cassian after his practical experience in the western world. 5. THE O m C E N I S T C O N T R O V E R S Y

The year A.D* 399 marks the end of an epoch both in the history of the monastic movement and in the life of John Cassian. At Epiphany Evagrius died in Cellia, with Palladius at his side to transmit a typically Evagrian confession: 'For three years I have not been troubled by fleshly desire-rafter so long a life of toil and labour and unceasing prayer*; * evidendy he claimed to have attained that ' apathy * at which his spiritual conceptions aimed. A few months later Theophilus the Patriarch of Alexandria took the fateful step which inaugurated the downfall of Origenism in Egypt and the end of the first phase in the history of monasticism. 1

crc

HL xxxvm. i j f

33

3

JOHN CASSIAN

Theophilus, who had been associated with Nitria, was a friend of the leading Origenist ascetics, one of whom he had attempted unsuccessfully to create Patriarch of Constantinople at the election of 398 when imperial influence secured the elevation of John Chrysostom* He had drawn upon the Origenists for his Egyptian suffragans, though in horror at the suggested abandonment of the desert some had resisted him by refusal or even by self�mutilation/ A man of huge ambition, eager to enforce his authority over the Church in Egypt and feeling the desert settlements to be beyond his control, he conceived a plan for using his Origenist friends to secure and emphasize his domination of the ascetics* The Patriarch by custom issued letters annually, fixing the dates of Lent and Easter and castigating heresies* Theophilus in the festal letters for 399 pronounced a lengthy condemnation of anthropomorphism and promulgated a more spiritual theology of the Godhead.* The letters in due course circulated round the monastic communities, and met with alarm and violent opposition* Cassian, in Scete at the time and therefore an eye�wimess of the ensuing crisis, reports that almost all the Egyptian ascetics received thu anathemas of Theophilus with such bitterness that the great majority of the elders decided that the Patriarch himself ought to be anathematized as a heretic. Only one of the priests in Scete, the Origenist Paphnutius in whose community were Cassian and Germanus, either wished or dared to read the letters in church. The consequent events we can trace, though obscurely, in Sozomen, Socrates, Palladius and the letters of Jerome* Were Cassian the sole authority, the impression would be left that despite the fierce opposition of great numbers, the decrees of Theophilus were ultimately accepted by the Egyptians. We hear nothing in Cassian of the riots in Alexandria, of the Patriarch's submission, of the expulsion of Origenism. Except in Cassian s community in Scete where Paphnutius succeeded in bringing round his congregation to the Origenist viewpoint, a violent agitation arose; and at this point the names * Origenist* and 'Anthropomorphite' begin to apply as the epithets 1

Socrates rv, aj ; Sozomen vj. 30, * Sozomen vra, 11 ; Cassian, Coli. χ. a.

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PREPARATION

by which either party attempted to curse the opposition/ A numerous band of monks repaired to Alexandria and caused riots there with the apparent intention of murdering the Patriarch, Theophilus had courage. He went out to meet the approaching mob, and as soon as he could make himself heard, 'When I see you,* he said, *I see the face of God5. 'Then/ said the leaders, 'if you really believe that, condemn the works of Origen/ Theophilus, whom Palladius nicknamed 'Mr Facmg-both-waysV consented on the spot to condemn the Origenists* He therefore swung round to using the opponents of Origcnism and consequendy determined to crush his former friends* He sent letters to his suffragans ordering the expulsion of the Origenist monks from the monasteries and the desert: there appears from this moment a drift out of Egypt by some members of the now condemned Origenist party.3 But in Nitria there were ascetics of a militant mould. The calamity that followed is wrapped in obscurity by the propaganda of both sides. Theophilus in his synodical letter charged the Origenists with arming slaves, with seizing and fortifying the church at Nitria both against the remaining monks who wished to attend divine service and against a visitation by himself and his bishops; and he alleged that an attempt was made upon his own life. The propaganda of the other side presented the same incidents in a diffèrent light. Palladius, who is violendy partisan and whose whole evidence is riddled with inaccuracy, alleged that Theophilus attacked Nitria with a drunken troop of soldiers, burnt the cells of the three leaders, their copies of the Scriptures, the consecrated elements, and even a boy* Whatever the truth, there was brawling and rioting at Nitria; and in the same year Isidore and the four leading Origenist monks known as the Tall Brothers led a band numbering perhaps 300 to exile at Scythopolis in Palestine* From here the leaders set out with fifty disciples for Constantinople, where they arrived in 400 or 401 to enlist the 1

Socrates VI, 7 implies that the party names only arose in thii crisis* Dial. VT (tr. Moore), p. 49 n. There were other causes of irritation, cf, e.g. Socrates vi. 7 and Sozomen YIII. 12. 4. * In Jerome Ep. uoocvi, at a fairly eatly stage of the controversy, one Origenist arrived in Jerusalem. Palladius also, who was present at the synod in Constantinople in May 400, left early in 400 or late in 390, though there is 110 direct evidence that he left on account of the Origenist crisis. 1

35

i-a

JOHN CASSIAN

goodwill and aid of John Chrysostom* Meanwhile Theophilus held an anathematizing council at Alexandria and invoked the support of anti-Origenist theologians in the wider Church. The condemnation of Origen by the great sees, though almost irrelevant to the monastic issue, would prevent the expelled ascetics from receiving foreign sympathy. This struggle marks the end of the halcyon days of primitive Egyptian monasticism* When Cassian looked back, he saw the years before 399, and attempted to perpetuate in Gaul a sphituality which he imagined as overthrown in Egypt by the expulsion of the Origenists. How far did this ecclesiastical war affect the life of Cassian himself? Except for his own account of the original condemnation of anthropomorphism, no direct evidence proves that he was involved. But the facts are circumstantial enough. In A*D< 399 Cassian was in Egypt* He is next found, somewhere between 400 and 403, being ordained deacon in the city of Constantinople. He certainly left Egypt imwillingry, since he would not relinquish the desert in spite of the promise made to the elders of Bethlehem. He was ordained at Constantinople against his will/ Therefore it is inconceivable that he should have travelled to the eastern capital without some compelling reason* His sympathies, in the short passage in which he touches upon the controversy, are decidedly with the Origenists. While he shows no trace of the specific Origenist doctrines regarded as heretical by Catholic theology, his conception of the ascetic life is fundamentally that of Oiigen's interpreter Evagrius. He was numbered among those foreigners whose presence and influence irritated the Copts/ In short, it is a fair inference that the journey of Cassian from Egypt to Constantinople was connected with the struggle over Origenism, though it is not probable that he and Germanus travelled among the companions of the Tall Brothers/ 1

1

Inst. XI. 18.

Theophilus says that the Origenist monks have fled from Egypt *cum quibusdam pcicgrinis qui in Aegypto parumper habitant1 (Jerome, Ep. xen, 1}. Cassian and Germanus could be included in this category. ' The usual chronology for these incidents has. been based on Palladius, Dial. vi-vn. He describes the order of events : (i) TheophiluVs letter to the deiert; (ii) interview with Ammonius at Alexandria; (iii) Council of Alexandria; (iv)

36

PREPARATION 6. C H R Y S O S T O M

In Constantinople the Origenists nocked for protection to the bishop, who welcomed many with open and imprudent arms* John Chrysostom shows himself in his sermons a thoughtful exegete in the literal tradition, an uncompiornising admirer of the ascetics, a fearless assailant of defective morals. Trained when young as an ascetic, he had acquired a severity and a freedom of speech which he justified as righteous rebuke, and which his opponents condemned as uncontrolled arrogance. He allowed the lash of his tongue to fall not only on congregations who savoured it but upon the clergy and courtiers whose co-operation was necessary for the successful government of the Church* The absence from his nature of any hint of compromise or diplomacy disqualified him for the spiritual leadership of an urban society and developed a prodigious capacity for antagonizing hisfriends;but it likewise drew from his admirers that passionate discipîeship which only a smgle-minded leader can evoke from the young* Cassian in an apostrophe to the citizens of Constantinople TheophüWs aimed assault upon Nitria. The synodical letter of the Council relates the seizure of the church at Nitiia by the Origenists. Thus historians (e.g. Butler, HL c, p. 240 ; Kidd, History oj tfte Church nr p. 43*) have assumed that the raid on Nitria followed the Council, since Palladius, who ought to know, states the fact. But it cannot be true. The synodical letter of the Council of Alexandria (given in Jerome, Ep. xca) states that Theophilus has visited Nitria, and that Ammonias and his followers have already left Egypt and arc wandering, like Beelzebub, to and fro on the earth. It is possible that their departure did not leave Nitria free of Origenism ; but the end of the synodical letter implies that the battle in Egypt U over» cf, 'qui contra nos hostiliter pugnabant\ Other letters among those of St Jerome [Epp, Ljocjcvn-Lxxxix) also suggest that the trouble had quietened in Egypt before the year 400 was ended. Therefore the seizure of the church by the Origenists, and the attack by Theophilus, are not two distinct incidents, one before and one after the Council, but the same incident viewed from opposite angles and occurring before the Council in 400. The purpose of the Council was to prevent the exiles from finding help abroad and was held after they had gone abroad, Palladius in Dial, ντ stares: *By the fear of God I will tell you nothing bat the facts concerning those clergy of whom you have spoken/ But here, on a point of major importance, his history is false. Or W. Telfer {JTS xxxvm (1937)* pp� 307ft) shows cogent reasons why the treatment of the Lausiac History as an eye� witne» account should be regarded with suspicion, since at one point the author appears to be deliberately romancing. If the Dialogue is by the same hand, there wül be hesitation over accepting its evidence uncritically in a controversial matter where passions arc aroused.

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CASSIAN

described him in words which ring with an almost worshipping fervour: Remember John, who was so wonderful in his faith and purity. Remember John I say*, the great John who hke his namesake the Evangelist lay on his Lord's breast, a disciple of Jesus and an aposde. Remember him I say* follow him and his faith and his purity. Meditate oil his teaching and his holiness. Always remember him who taught you and nourished you* in whose breast and arms you grew to manhood in the faith. He was alike my master and yours: we arc his followers and pupils. Read his writings and keep what he has given, take to yourselves his faith and his saindincss. It is a grand thing to attain to his stature* but it is hard—nevertheless even the following of him is lovely and magnificent.... Therefore you should always keep him in your thoughts and in your mind's eye, arid meditate upon him in your heart. He himself would commend to you this book that Γ have written [sc. De lncarnatione\ because he taught me what [ have written. Therefore consider that these words are rather his than mine, for a river flows out of its spring, and whatever honour you may think due to the disciple* ought all to be referred to the master.1 Cassian can only have known Chrysostom for three or four turbulent years among the ecclesiastical brawls of Constantinople. If we accept this claim to theological as well as personal disciple� ship, it is possible that the personality of the bishop was another clement in the growth of Cassian. Did Chrysostom refine and stabilise his ascetic fervour? All other sources offer an enchanting and sometimes noble picture of the desert fathers; but often the aims have gone astray. The atmosphere of the desert is local and in one sense narrow, to a westerner it is often exotic. Does the wider and more familiar air which we breathe in the writings of Cassian come in part from an experience of life in the capital under the guidance of Chrysostom ? But Chrysostom was not theologically an Evagrian; and the dependence of Cassian is personal or verbal rather than literary. If the pupil had read the works of his teacher he does not reveal the fact in his own three treatises: and the one sentence of Chrysostom which he quotes has not been 1 found among the bishop's writings. ' De Ine. vn. ji. 4�6. * De Inc. vu. 30. 1; cf. Cassiodotus, Expos, in Ps. xvn, 13, Hoch (in Lehre, passim) showed frequent doctrinal parallels between Cassian and Chrysostom,

38

PREPARATION

The discipleship of Cassian and Palladius and other 'Joannites' combines with the homilies and the letters to prove that Chrysostom was seen as a giant. But the high quality of many among his opponents and his own conduct show that he pushed his rigour until it became folly* His censorious criticism of any and every opponent from the Empress to the humblest monk, his rancour towards men who were down, his refusal to meet on friendly terms his colleagues in the episcopate, created a party animated by the conviction that he was no suitable bishop for Constantinople* The steps by which he delivered himself into the enemies' hands may be read in Socrates or Sozomen or any history of the controversy* Here we must notice only his patronage of the Origenists, a patronage whereby Cassian indirecdy contributed to his downfall* The fixed policy of promoting foreign ascetics to official posts was not calculated to endear him to the place-hunters of the capital* The existing antagonism was bound to grow when church officials were selected not from the local clergy who expected preferment but from ragged visitors out of the deserts of Egypt and Syria. Palladius* who left Egypt in 399^4°°* w a s consecrated bishop of Helenopolis,1 an anchorite named Philip was placed over the ecclesiastical school, Germanus and Cassian, the one ordained by Chrysostom to the priesthood, the other to the diaconate,* were given the care of the cathedral treasury. Most unpopular of all* because it was justly held to he outside Chrysostom's legitimate jurisdiction, was the consecration of another pupil of Evagrius, named Heracleides* to the see of Ephesus. There appear to have been further promotions of this but not literary dependence. L, Wraol made a study of their relations in the matter of apathy, and concluded that the relationship showed common sources rather than direct borrowing; c£ DSAM s.v. Casskn, iü4+ C£ Abel, p. 32, and P. Godet, in DTC s.v. Cassien* who wrote that he Vimprègne de l'esprit de saint Chrysostom \ • It is probable, though not certain, that Chrysostom was his consecrator; cf. Butler, HL n* p. 243 ; Palladius, Dial, m and χκ. 3 Palladius, Dial, m; Sozomen νητ. 26. Did Cassian live in Constantinople with his sister Τ Lut. χι. 18 proves that at some stage he had associated with his sister in a way not quite creditable to an ascetic. The only occasions when he failed to live the ascetic Bfc were presumably the sojourns as an urban ecclesiastic in Constantinople and Rome. Since his raiiwly probably came from the Balkans and since in De Inc. vn, 31. 3 he calls the citizens of Constantinople 'mei patriae elves', rhe eastern capital seems the more likely. The exceptions made in the numerous 39

JOHN

CASSIAN

kind.1 Whatever the merits of the man promoted, this policy was bound to create discontent: and it enabled Chrysostom's enemies to accuse him of Origenism, It was not possible to arraign him for admitting strangers to important posts; but when these strangers were Origenist refugees* a charge was presented of which the disgruntled were not slow to take advantage, The proceedings 3 of the Synod of the Oak as given by Photius show that the Origenism of both Heracleides and Palladius was used as a means of attacking Chrysostom. Therefore the presence and promotion of so many foreign ascetics must have been a factor in the affrays and logomachies of 403�4 when he was deposed and exiled. Hence Cassian was closely concerned with the ecclesiastical strife over the deposition; the cathedral of which he was an official was burnt to the gtound in a riot.* The fall of their protector spelt disaster for the Origenists. In 405 Cassian and Germanus, Palladius and Philip the anchorite, were found among the stream of refugees passing westward to Italy * The public stature of the two companions had grown: for having executed their trust by depositing with the city magistrates valuables of gold and silver and clothing from the treasury, they carried the receipt and letters from their party leaders to Pope Innocent I at Rome* canons which condemn subintrodudae show that it was common for a sister or mother or daughter to Jive with a cleric. On the other hand Laugier {S. Jean Cassien, p. j«) and Schwartz {Lebensaaten Cassions, p. Β) thought that his sister came latex to join him at Marseilles, that for her he instituted thefemalemonastery (cf Pachomius or Caesarius) and that this is the explanation of'nee germanam vitare'. So Cristiani, Cassimt, p, 40, 1 Sozomen vnx 6, Theophilus in 405 charged Chrysostom not only with receiving the Origenists but with elevating 'very many' to the sacerdotium {Jerome, Ep, cxm. 1). Sarapion the unpopular archdeacon was also an Egyptian by race (Sozomen vrn. 9). * Bibl $9. 3 Germanus was used by Chrysostom in the negotiations with Theophilus; cf. Chrysostom* Ep. \. 2 (to Innocent) in PG UL j | i . Was Cassian among the priests and deacons of the cathedral who were beaten and driven out on the night of baptism (Sozomen vmr i i ) ? * Palladius and Cassian did not travel together. The curious parallels in their respective careers must be noticed. Both came from the north to learn perfection in Egypt; both derived their reaching from Evagrius; both left Egypt in 300�400, probably owing to the Origenist crisis; both were promoted by Chrysostom and exiled by bis downfall; and finally both wrote books illustrating that period of monasticism before the disaster of jpg. But these striking similarities must not aftect our judgement of their differing

40

PREPARATION 7. GAUL

Of Cassiatt's stay in Rome we know one fact only, that he formed a friendship with Leo, later the great Pope* though he must have been much older than the young Roman.1 Germanus disappears. Some years later Cassian founded at Marseilles twin monasteries* one for women and one for men dedicated to St Victor the martyr. Perhaps he was driven from Italy by the invasion of Alaric in 410; perhaps he travelled to Marseilles because the church there was ruled by Proculus* one of the western bishops who were associated at this date with the ascetic movement,4 He was ordained priest either by Innocent I at Rome or (more probably) by Proculus.3 The land of Provence formed from 414 to 433 a haven in the railing débris of western civmzation^ *the one retreat that still lives in a dead Roman commonwealth \ 4 as a contemporary described it. In 40ό the Germans had at last broken the Rhinefrontierand, sacking great cities like Mainz, Treves* Cologne* Rhcims* had passed to devastate Aquitaine and Spain; and from northern Gaul a melancholy stream sought safety on the Mediterranean coast* writings. Palladius is a sentimentalist, turning backward to a disappearing age; Cassian is forward�looting, concerned to build tor the future while using the best of the old regime. τ De bu. praef ι. He may also have met Pelagius* a possibility which Gaset thought significant. Legend�make» have been busy with this encounter between Leo and Cassian: e.g. chat Leo wanted to join Cassian in the solitary life but was forbidden by Pope Innocent I; and that Leo as Pope went to Gaul to consecrate St Victor; though the chronology is impossible; cf PL LV. 187. 1 Proculus was connected with asceticism through Jerome (Ep. exxv. 20) and Honoratus {Vita n. 13). 3 Gcnnadius may imply an ordination at Marseilles, ixn: * Constanrinopoli... diaconus ordinatus apud Massuiam presbyter condidit duo monasteria.' TiÜemont noticed that in 414-5 a priest Cassian is found in Rome trying to restore communion with Antiochj, and regarded this person as our Cassian. But this Cassian was newly arrived in Rome from the east. Although some of the exiles, e.g. Palladius, did return, it is unlikely that Cassian, a Joantiire* could have returned to Antioch and become its ambassador Sec Meyer, fean Cassien, sa vie et ses écrits^ ρ* ι8. Η. Ι. Marron. Revue au moyen £ge latin L pp. 5�26 (cf RHE 40,1944�5, p� 37*; Cristiani* Casskm E* p. 228) has suggested that Cassian was interested in Gaul because in Palestine he met Lazarus the deposed bishop of Aix. There seem no grounds for this, * Cf Salvian, De Qt&, IV. JO, paraphrased. 4T

J O H N CASSIAN

The hungry and the destitute, the plundered and the wounded» wandered through Gaul in despair and often headed for Provence. Fugitives came also from the south. When from 408 to 411 the Visigoths were tramping the soil of Italy, refugees from the capital scattered to Africa» Sardinia, Corsica and the islands; Rome» like north Gaul and Aquitaine» looked to Provence for safety.' The barren notes of the annalists leave us little information in terms of human life ; but we possess a quasi-autobiographical poem from the hand of one such sufferer named Paulinus. A noble grandson of the poet and praetorian prefect Ausonius, owning broad lands and directing numerous retainers in the district of Bordeaux, he had omitted to ask the protection of any barbarian leader as the Gothic tribes moved into Aquitaine after their Italian invasion* and paid the penalty in the sack ofhis home and the loss ofhis property» His succeeding and romantic adventures led him to Marseilles, where he could in safety eke out a poorer Hvclihood upon a little estate and whence he was stirred by disaster temporarily to contemplate retirement into some nearby monastery, perhaps the community of St Victor* The barbarian menace was not only increasing the population of the south but was providing an apocalyptic background to the growth of the ascetic movement. When faith in material prosperity was vanity» the ascetic call to an eternal salvation apart from moribund society acquired a compelling urgency and a new relevance. My earthly goods have perished and are lost, that I Might know to seek the eternal wealth of God, wrote Paulinus in his old age*1 The broad leisure of another generation of aristocrats was disappearing before plunder and anarchy: if he could find neither hope nor safety in the world, perhaps he might find them in the convent. 1

Cf (a few years earlier) Claudian. De Bell. Goth. 21 $-& and Stihchco question to the Romans, ibid. 296-301 : Quid turpes iam mente fugas. quid Gallica rura Respkitis Latioque übet post terga relicto Longinquum profugis Arnim praecingere castris? Scilicet Arctois concessa geutibus urbc Considet regnum Rhodano capitique superstes Truncus erit? * Euàiaristicos 441-2. 42

PREPARATION

Even Provence was not immune. While usurpers and brigands filled northern Gaul, the Visigoths, after the Italian campaign which followed their famous sack of Rome, retired over the Alps into Provence. In 412 the litde Provencal towns were busily buuding walls and fortifications; and the Visigothic king besieged Marseilles itself, though unsuccessfully, before he passed to Aquitaine and Spain.1 From 415 the absence of the Visigoths and the power of the associate emperor Constanuus operating from north Italy allowed Provence a period of peace so welcome that three years later the governor of Gaul transferred his capital from the north to Aries* Yet we cannot forget the background. In the streets men shouted that God had deserted his people, that he had ceased to care for humanity; and in the abbey of St Victor puzzled inquirers came to Cassian to ask why God permitted righteous monks to die at the hands of barbarians,* The ascetic movement, advocated in the west by Athanasius during his exile and more recendy by the relentless letters and treatises of the distant Jerome» had reached a point where it needed authority and guidance. Augustine in Africa, Martin in Gaul, Paulinus of Noia and Ambrose in Italy, Priscillian in Spain, had by their prowess and reputation sanctified asceticism in the eyes of a section of the population. But the movement had not fully captured the loyalty of the leaders of society as a whole. Not only the unsympathetic pagans but sporadic Christian opinion denounced the monks as irresponsible and bizarre wretches* If a great noble retired from the world, he met an accusation of madness and wrongful desertion of his friends.3 Ascetic bishops like Martin faced bickering opposition from their own clergy during their lives and provoked ecclesiastical reaction after their deaths ; and as recently as 405-6 Jerome had been complaining with his 1

An inscription of about 412 (Corp. Inset. Lot. xu. 1524) proves the fortification of Sisteron. For Athaulf's siege of Marseilles, which was defended by Boniface, later the loser of Africa to the Vandals» see Oly mpiodoms ap. Photius $0. 1 Salvian, De Cub. 1. 13 CoU. VL1. The Goths besieged Aries again in 425, when it viras successfully defended by Aetiua (Prosper, Chron. ad ann.). Monks and nuns certainly suffered during the invasions; c£ Carmen de Prov. Div. 47-52. * Rutilhis Namatianus (fl. 440-5) shows the pagan outlook. Ausonius reproaches Paulinus in Epp, xxvu-Xxix. PaulinusTs reply to the charge that he had forsaken humanity is interesting as revealing aristocratic motives for the ascetic lite {Ausonius, Ep. xxxi. 1J7-OS).

43

J O H N CASSIAN

customary acidity that the Gallic bishops were supporting the assailants of the monks. In Africa the authority of Augustine did not prevent the crowds of the cities mocking and jostling and hissing ascetics in the streets*1 In Spain the opposition, twenty-five years before Cassian's arrival at Marseilles, secured its most signal triumph by employing the careless and rutile speculation of Priscillian to brand not only his inner disciples, but any who anected the customs or costume of ascetics, with the damning appellation of heretics : the condemnation of Priscillian and the consequent persecution probably postponed the development of monasticism in Spain for a generation. Enterprising Gauls had already attempted, though »^successfully, to emulate their Spanish friends by frxing to the group of Martin the stigma of heresy; 1 and the attacks upon Proculus of Marseilles, who saw four ofhis sympathetic suffragans deposed and ultimately lost his credit at Rome and his rights as metropolitan in Provence,3 may have owed part of their rancour to his encouragement of the movement* To the Gallic problem, how men should respond to the ascetic call, Martin (whose reputation, still local in Gaul,4 had reached Rome and the east through the transmission of the Life written by Sulpicius Severus) followed Antony in giving an individualist answer* Each man, though he will take advice from his elders, will decide ultimately for himself how to pray, where to live, what austerities to practise* This solution could not satisfy; pardy because the iron selfniiscipline required for a serrriVsolitary life is possessed by few men, pardy because for their lessons in self-denial the Gauls were forced to study Egypt on account of its reputation 1

Jerome., Aâv. Vig. 2 ; Salvian. De Cub. VQI. IO-22. C£ Fuastrius, Haer. &4 in PL χπ. 1196�7. * Of the suffragans* two made the mistake of supporting an unsuccessful usurper» Constantine. Their connexion with asceticism is shown by; {a) Tucntius had before his consecration been condemned as a Priseiluamst (Pope Zosimus, Ep, IV. 3), (6) Heros was a disciple of Martin (Prosper* Citron, ad ann. 412). [c) Lazarus had attacked the personal morality of Brke, who had succeeded Martin at Tours and was heartily disliked by the Martinian party {Zosimus, Ep. in. 3, rv. 2; Sulpicius Severus, Dial. m. i s ; Gregory of Tours* Historia FrancoTum X, 31}. * Sulpicius Severus, Dial. 1. 26. 1

44

PREPARATION

as the birthplace of the ascetic movement: and the Egyptian ideals were not always suited to the temperament of the GalloRomans and the climate of Gaul, The Gallic asceticism needed two things. First it needed a balanced and adapted interpretation of eastern monachism, suitable for Gallic souls and Gallic bodies : and secondly it needed discipline, the discipline of community life* The individualism of St Martin in practice led to small groups of semi-hermits centred round some outstanding personahty like Victricius of Rouen or Martin himself. When the leader died, he left so little behind him that the work had to begin again. This need of a disciplined and ordered community was partially satisfied by Honoratus, who founded about the year 410 a monastery on the island of Lérins off the coast of Provence. But the question at once arose : On what principles must the new coenobium be run ? What are its aims and by what methods are they achieved ? There was thus a favourable opportunity and a pressing need for someone to provide a synthesis of all that was best in the asceticism of Egypt and the east, and to present and interpret the original aims of che ascetic movement for the benefit of western minds* For this work Cassian was peculiarly fitted, by his experiences of eastern coenobites and Egyptian eremites» by his training under St John Chrysostom, and by his attempts to live the life of prayer and self-sacrifice which it was his mission to expound.

45

CHAPTKR II

THE MONASTERY By the year 410 the ascetic movement had made little progress in southern GauL Hermits or loose bands of monks were appearing in the islands off the coast and further north cities like Tours had witnessed sporadic and temporary formations of communities. The Rhône valley, linked with Rome and the east by the trade routes, must often have seen th& travelling ascetic who in settling attracted Gallic disciples. But in Provence and in the country districts generally the monastic life was rarely found; and asceticism everywhere offered too easy a target to its assailants* A volatile deske for the monastic lite, combined with die minimum exr>erience of the tried methods of asceticism and based mainly upon floating hearsay from the east» permitted and encouraged the growth, of abuses* The founder of a community, who guided his flock according to his private ideas, invited criticism and disaster : in default of eastern guidance he must lack sufficient knowledge and experience* Rumour, which always recounts the peculiar and the exceptional, would find in the sagas of the Egyptian hermits interesting material for Gallic conversation but an eccentric basis for any sane monasticism. We possess in the Dialogues of Sulpicius an account by the traveller Postumian of his voyage to Egypt and the east* Postumian, though he stressed the virtue of obedience,1 retailed thrills of miraculously tame lions or naked hermits or ascetics living upon six dried figs and was even able to interest his hearers in obedience by narrating trivial and absurd examples of miraculous consequences* The Life of Saint Martin itself, with its zeal for supernatural prodigies and its omission of any discussion of the aim of Martin's practices, was likely to give Gaul an erroneous impression of the true meaning r

Had Cassian read the Sulpician Dialogues* It is possible (but contrast Butler, HL τ. p. 313); and notice the following texts; Dial, 1, io. 1 : summum ius est abbatis impetio vivere, nihil suo arbittio agere, per omnia ad nutum illius potestatemque penderc. Coll. xxrv. 26. 14: senioris reguntur impede qui nihil omnino arbittio suo agunt, sed voluntas eorum ex voluntatc pendet abbatis.

46

THE MONASTERY

of asceticism. No one had corrected these misleading stories, which carried so mistaken an incitement to sanctity, by a sober account of the objects and ideals of the movement, of its instruments and regulations. Previous western writers had described eastern asceticism from the outside. But Cassian ceaselessly reiterated that you cannot understand the monastic life unless you are attempting to live it.1 Gaul knew the writings ofJerome who had translated the Rule of Pachomius and had so vehemendy extolled virginity and sackcloth* But Jerome's rame rests upon his Biblical scholarship, not upon his ascetical theology : in the history of monasticism he is the enthusiastic advertiser, not the reasoning expert* And his resentful contempt for opponents had created in Gaul as elsewhere dislike ofhis person and criticism ofhis orthodoxy.* Who should decide the rules and explain the ideals of the young Gallic communities ? The infrequency of the ascetic life in Gaul preventing the formation of any coherent body of customs and traditions, discipline and order were wanting. A young man, entering a community probably in expectation of the austere satisfaction declared by the publicists as the natural reward, would discover after a year or two the ennui of an enclosed life and would return to secular society ; so that a lack of stability rendered the enforcing of obedience a problem without obvious solution. If a monk were punished he would depart; and probably a formed body of opinion would be ready to support his action. An eastern ascetic3 was scandalittd at the light attitude to property customary in Gaul Monks claimed possessions of their own, wore signetrings and carried keys of their private chests and drawers. A less diversified practice, a closer uniformity of discipline, was needed. Yet the evidence does not warrant a charge of anarchy* Every organizer exaggerates the chaos which he is attempting to reduce to order; and Cassian*$ criticisms are comparatively mild* The diocese of Apt, forty miles north of Marseilles, had never known a monastery. Accordingly the bishop Castor, who desired to found a community, applied about the year 430 to the ascetic 1

The recurrence in Cassian of the phrase 'expenentia magiitrante1, (and similar expressions) is noted by Gennadius ixn, Benedict, Heg. 1» and by Flew. Tlie Idea of Perfection, p. 162. * Sulpicius, Dial. 1. o. 3 Inst. "a. 3-j, lv. 14-1 j , XIL aS.

47

J O H N CASSIAN

from Egypt who was evidently acquiring a local reputation for the sound guidance ofhis own community at Marseilles and who alone could describe accurately the customs and ideals of the east* The form of the answer demonstrates that Castor (whose published letter of request is an incompetent forgery) asked for two different things : first, a 'rule*, a series of practical regulations for his new monastery; and secondly, guidance upon the spiritual and interior aims and methods of coenobitic life. Cassian divided his reply into two parts so distinct that they have often been published separately. Books 1-rv of the Institutes deal rnainly with exterior precepts for dress and worship, books v-xn "with the principal faults of which the monk must purge his life. The whole treatise must have surprised and perhaps disappointed the monks of Apt, who probably expected from any Egyptian the excitement of the exotic and the marvellous* * 1 shall make no attempt, ' he wrote in the preface, *to relate anecdotes of miracles and prodigies. For although I have heard of many unbelievable marvels from my elders and have seen some with my own eyes, I have wholly omitted them because they contribute nothing but astonishment to the instruction of the reader in the perfect life.* Castor had discovered a sane director* The desired basis of uniformity Cassian found in tradition, expressed by the title of the book in a phrase that recurs, *che institutes of the elders*. The Gallic monks must abandon their private ideas and practices to follow the precepts of past experience. For faithfulness to tradition does not consist only in the following of Egypt: Cassian shared the common ascetic belief that the coenobitic life was founded by the apostles in the 'communist* church ofJerusalem* Although so large a part of the Church had declined from these pristine ideals, there were always some (he believed) who retained the apostolic fervour—Antony had inaugurated only a solitary life, a fringe of wild flowers round the garden*1 In the contemporary Church the form of common life representing the true apostolic tradition could be found in Egypt and Syria. Yet he knew well that a barren imitation of eastern methods invited miscarriage in Gaul. The climate of Provence and the character ofits people prevented the exact type of devotion 1

Cult. xvm. 5-6.

48

THE MONASTBRY

or austerity which prevailed in Egypt The Gauls supposed that the rumoured diet, possible under the Egyptian sun but meaning starvation in Gaul, formed a necessary element in ascetic life; and one of them recorded the querulous protest, 'We Gauls ought not to be forced to live hke angels V Cassian therefore avowed his aim of tempering eastern practices, where he regarded them as unsuitably severe, with regulations culled from less rigorous sources—in particular the Longer and Snorter Rules of Basil, who fifty years before had sufficient wisdom to publish a guide to the monastic life which the orthodox Egyptian could not but regard as regrettably lax** Cassian was not reporting faithfully the Egyptian or Syrian scene, but was choosing and sifting and interpreting the traditions of the east to create a body of institutes suitable to Gaul» Pachomius and Basil had believed the coenobitic life pleased God more than the hermit life; a conviction premature in that age and immortalized by Basil in the pungent demand, ' If you always live alone, whose feet will you wash V3 A monk of the Antonian school must reject this absolutely* We expect Cassian to advocate the hermit life and we are only partly mistaken. He believed the life of the coenobite to be * mediocrity \ that of the hermit to be 'sublimity'; the coenobium to be the kindergarten, solitude the senior school* to which the soul should pass when purified from the great vices. But this needs qualification* For to his mind solitude did not imply the irrational fanaticism of the hermit upon Sinai who believed that any encounter with men drew him farther from God, but the semi�Carthusian societies of Egyptian hermits with whom he had lived in Cellia and Scete. A true hermit, he held, associates with other hermits and is subject, like 1

Sulpicius, Dial, I. 4. Inst, ptaef. $. Compare Inst. 1. 1 with RFT 23 where the illustration of Agabus is particulady striking ; Inst. 1. 2 and the sheepskin and goatskin in r, 7 with RFT21'. he quotes a saying of Basil in Inst. vu. 19 (c£ Vitae Patrum v. 6* 10), and another saying in Inst. vi. 19, for which cf, a passage in thefirstSertno Asteiieus, PC xxxi. β7ΐ»; although this is commonly regarded as spurious (Clarke, Ttte Asetik Wàths of St Basu\ p. 11), it has not been proved so, Cf also Hausherr, OCJ>i(i935hP ISO, 3 RFT y. C£ ibid. (tr. Clarke); ' The solitary life has one aim, the service of the needs of the individual. But this is plainly in conflict with the law of love * 4 CoU. xvn. 10, xvm, praef. ι, xvni. 10, 1$, 1

eje

49

•:

JOHN CASSIAN

a coenobite, to the tradition of the elders.1 (Any ascetics outside the common discipline he classified as iSarabaites\) Once he praises solitude because it offers the benefit of companionship with saintly men** The lone ascetic cannot submit to the elders but must base himself on private judgement; and although he acquires the opportunity of a deeper stillness and (in theory) longer hours of prayer*, he cannot continue in the full tension of the spiritual combat without exposing his soul to satiety and its attendant dangers. And strain could only find relief in 'repeated αχαοί^ηοη' with the brethren—a doctrine which he illustrated with the famous tale of St John the Evangelist who caused sad misgivings to a philosopher by amusing himself with a partridge.^ But this is a practical product of experience, far from the Basüian conception of the value of social existence. If the hermit couid safely live alone without spiritual loss, he would there find God in full retirement; and his place in society so remains a necessity of fallen human nature that Cassian could consider one principal advantage of social relations to lie to the enhancement of the desire for loneliness. The monk therefore must choose between the close and intimate companionship of coenobites and the loose and scattered brotherhoods of hermits wherein the ascetics lived within a few miles round a common church in a society which, if more individualistic than a coenobium, nevertheless owned certain disciplinary rules and a limited organization* Yet his theory withdraws still further from the Sinaitic ideal* He founded a coenobium at Marseilles, he encouraged Honoratus at Lérins, he directed the new community at Apt* Although leaders like Eucherius and Helladius were successfully practising the hermit life near Lérins, he doubted whether many Gauls had advanced sufficiently tar to embark upon the loftier stage ; and plainly the inexperienced might attempt the heights from mistaken or sinful motives—from pride, from a 1

For the * Sinai1 point of view see Sulpidus* Dial. 1.17, and Arsenius in Apoph. Arsenius 13 ('God knows that I love you: but 1 cannot be with God and with men+). For Cassdan's viewpoint cf. Nilus, Narrationes 3 in PC LXXDO 621. * Colt. xvm. 16. 3, η. a�j. Of the origin and exact meaning of the word ' Sara� baite* we arc ignorant. Cf Benedict, Reg. 1 and Jerome, Ep. xxn, 35, î CoU. χταν, ao�l. The moral of the taut bow was repeated by Gregory. Moralin xxviUi 29. 50

THE MONASTERY

desire for popular applause* or from an erroneous notion that the monk could more easily defeat sin after eliminating the normal tension of human relationships. The Egyptians considered the coenobium as the necessary training ground of beginners ; and only when the ascetic had purged his soul of the common vices by the practice of virtue and mortification in a community might he pass to the 'higher* contemplation of the solitary. It is the perfect men» purged from every fault, who ought to go into the desert. And when their faults are annihilated in their coenobitic life, they should enter solitude; not because they are cowards running away from their sins* but because they are pursuing the contemplation of God and desire a more sublime vision which cannot be found except in solitude» and then only by perfect men. For every fault that we bring» not purged, into the desert will still be felt hidden and undestroyed inside us. To a life that has been cured of sin, solitude can unlock the purest contemplation and unfold the knowledge of spiritual mysteries to its clear gaze; but in the same way it usually preserves and even worsens the faults of those who have not been, cured of them* A man seems to himselfpatient and humble so long as he does not meet anyone» but he will soon revert to his original nature whenever the cnance of For when we arc no longer able to practise some disturbance occurs our faults in human society, they will the more increase in us unless they have first been purged.1 But who will declare himself perfect ? Not Cassian—he recognized that he had left his first community too soon* and he remained in his Massilian coenobium to the end ofhis life* He was suifcring from an illusion which historical experience or a more independent mind might have dispelled* He knew that a soul which develops in charity becomes more and not less conscious of sin*3 And though he retained the hope that one day he might again seek solitude* he recognized himself as a beginner struggling on une ' Inst. vm. i«; cf ibid. ιό and 19; CoU. xxiv. 8, 3 : *non cnim quia bona est anachoresis, unjversis cam congruam comprobamus: a multis cnim non solum infructuosa, Sed etkm perniciosa*; Inst. v. 36. 1, χι. 6. I, xn. 30; and the views of Jerome. Epp. CTCXV. 9Ä1. exxx. 17* and of Schnoudi, DACL n. 2. 3106. This rule of a coenobitic apprenticeship ibr anchorites passed into the canon law of the Middle Ages; cf, Gougaud, Ermites et Reeîus (1928), pp. 66-7 and Isidore's definition of anchorite in Etym. 7. 13, 1 J Colt. xnc. n. 1. CoU. xxnL 6. il

λΐ

JOHN

CASSIAN

lowest rungs of the ladder to heaven*1 But he supposed that more fervent Gauls* emulating the Egyptian abbots whom he reverenced, might pass into the fancied sublimity of the anchoritic contemplation of God» Conference xot purports to be a discourse given by an Egyptian abbot named John upon the *aims of the coenobite and hermit \ John* having spent thirty years training in a coenobium, disappeared into the desert to a society of hermits where he won a reputation for holiness. After a further twenty years he returned to the 'kindergarten \ believing himself unworthy and incapable of the higher practice. Cassian's pupils could scarcely misunderstand the moral: if the heroic Egyptian knew himself unequal to the desert» can a Gaul presume after his brief training to think himself worthy ? The Conference, while rriamtaining the theoretical supremacy of the individualist ideal, is in part designed to discourage the reader from becoming a hermit* For John» having charged the anchorites with a declension from their ancient ideals (they eat cheese and use a blanket !)* maintains that the coenobitic life gains compensating advantages for iti loss of contemplative exaltation» The coenobite must obey; hidden among a crowd of brethren» he cannot suffer the vainglorious temptations of the spectacular hermit; and contrary to common opinion» he is less concerned with earthly trivialities, A solitary has no superior to eradicate his self�will, he must decide what work he will do» 1 ensure a suppry of food, and plan the entertainment of visitors. The argument implies that the imaginary picture of the contemplative engaged upon unceasing prayer in the desert is illusory. Meanwhile, Cassian was writing for beginners, 'κηυηοαηΐβ' as he termed them: and like Benedict he founded schools for beginners, corporate monasteries at Marseilles and Apt* The Institutes correspond, in intention though not in result* to the Rule of St Benedict, that * least of rules, written for beginners'. In the preface he dwells for a moment on the nature of a coenobium* It is a temple of God, built from living souls consecrated 1

Coll. x v m 4. 2. Piamun is speaking, but clearly this is Cassian's desire, Inst. xn\ 24. distinguishes between the advanced* who are liable to spiritual pride, and 'nos qui adhuc terrenis su mus passionibus involuti". 1 Coil XDC* $�4. i2

THE MONASTERY

to the Lord: and within this temple, each person bears 'Christ abiding in himself as King', a noble description of the hfe which he believed to be mediocrity. L THE THREE COUNSELS

The promises of chastity, poverty and obedience have been seen as the essence of the monastic life* But although it will be convenient here to examine Cassian's doctrine of these three pillars, we must remember that the idea of three particular counsels to which the monk must vow adhesion was not bom for many centuries and was not incorporated in a rite of admitting novices until the age of the friars. In the desert, chastity, poverty and obedience were three salient virtues among other virtues from which they were not detached to form a basis of the religious life* But the nature of the three soon distinguished them from less verifiable qualities like patience or discretion because they were more easily expressed with the aid of external regulation. Chastity could be sustained by the exclusion of women from the coenobium, obedience by the nature of a corporate constitution, poverty by the ban upon possessive adjectives like 'my* and 'thy* (then a normal rule in the east1 and still practised in modern communities) or by the refusal to allow a novice to bring his money even to the common purse—a rigour softened by Benedict. Since patience or humility lean upon no such props, it was inevitable that intimately these three counsels should be marked as the essence of the monastic life» A minimum practice of them could be tested» Since the second century the Church had regarded chastity as a necessary clement in asceticism* But the practice of the other two was a later development. The inclination to a simple life among the early ascetics was transformed by the conversion of Antony, whose impulse sprang from the hearing of the text "Go sell all that thou. hast. * **, into a movement towards total separation from possessions» The hermits of the desert, though they often abhorred money, sometimes preserved rights over the few necessities in their cells,1 It was the experience of the coenobites 1

Evagrius, Paraenesis ad Virgtnem 30: RFT 32; Chiysostom, Horn, in 2 Matin, 72. 3, Apoph. Scrapion 2\ CoU. xvm. I$.

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JOHN CASSIAN

who found that private possession created too independent a mind and rendered a truly common life impossible* which demanded the practice of poverty as Cassian and all his monastic successors have understood it» Similarly the obedience practised by the hermits was developed by coenobitic needs into an absolute requirement* According to the Historia Monackorum* Antony had undertaken the eradication of self�will from one of his earlier pupils by ordering the execution of unpleasant and futile labours, and among the hermits obedience became the most applauded virtue of a disciple. But in the hermit societies the incoherent government could not exact the same obedience from its senior members; and even among the coenobites the pressure towards a solitary life weakened the authority of the abbot. Casstan's failure to obey his superiors at Bethlehem, a failure for which in later life he did not apologize, demonstrates that the third counsel had not yet outgrown its inchoate origin* Cassian always treated the three counsels not as vows but as virtues» Chastity for him (and for Evagrius4) included not only an encrante life but chastity of heart, not only abstention from corporal acts but ' a limpid purity of soul, cleansed from personal desire and virgin to all but God '.^ Here he could be refreshingly healthy. The ascetic movement as a whole suffered from an extravagant horror of feminine society, illustrated by the ascetic cry 'Approach a fiery furnace rather than a young woman ! ' * Cassian did not escape this monomania.5 But a sojourn of several years in the cities of Constantinople and Rome had perhaps restored to him a certain balance, for we owe to him a diverting tale of justice» Walking in the desert, Abbot Paul met a woman and turned to run for home as though she were a dragon. This retreat being judged over�prudent by the Almighty, Paul was punished by an attack of paralysis which could not be treated by male hands, and forced his transfer to a convent where thoroughly feminine virgins nursed him until he died*6 i

xxxi, Preuschen, pp. 92�3. List. VL 4. Ι ι cf. Coti. xn\ 2. 5* XXL 36, Evagrius, Par, ad Virg. $2; Frankcnbcrg 585 ; cf. M. Vüler in RAM (April 1930)» p. 174, J Er Underbill, Mysticism, p. 20$. * Νilus, De Otto Spir. 5. i Coli xix. 16, $. C£ the story of Paphnutius in CoU. xv. 10, 1

6

Colt. VR. 26.

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THE

MONASTERY

He did not equate poverty with the complete sacrifice of riches but proclaimed the loftier doctrine of the threefold renunciation 1 which descended through Evagrius from the Stoic tradition. The abandonment of property is but the first step; the monk must pass to crush the sin and the desire that proceeds from possession and thence must rise above all things that are not God, above the whole created universe. Beyond poverty is the separation from all created things which is the condition of a pure love of God» And this virtue of detachment furthers the advance of the soul by conforming it to lowliness of the Lord. The imitation of Christ demands a descent to the want and poverty of Christ—he repeats the phrases * descendais ad humilitatem Christi', 'ad paupertatem Christi et inopiam descendisse \* He followed a certain element in desert tradition when he supposed that there could be no radical denial of self so long as the monk retained a personal independence of choice. Obedience therefore became the plinth of the coenobitic life—more momentous than any monastic practices, paramount over every virtue, the ABC in the learning of perfection»* If the monk has the responsibility for making a single decision, however trivial, then his judgement must be exercised and his will independent. Therefore personal responsibility and determination may be exercised only by the elders, whose wills are more conformed to the will of God and who in their turn are guided by the traditions and experience of their predecessors. The junior, in forming a decision upon his thoughts, is not to trust his judgement, but to pronounce that to 4 be good or bad which is considered good or bad by his elder* Cassian's monks must fulfil the orders of the elders as though they were the commandments of God himself, and even if an 1

Coll. m. io, 4; Evagrius, Cent. 1, 78�80; Frankenberg 117. Cf HMi in PL xxi. 396. The doctrine is also said by Cristiani to be found in the first of the letters attributed to St Antony (cf. Cristiani, Cassien n, p. 49), but although opinion has lately been veering towards the authenticity of these letter* (eg, G, Gatitte, Ά propos des lettres de S. Antoine l'Ermite** in Muséon i n {1939)1 PP-11-3 * )i we shall do well to be cautious. And the doctrine of the first letter does not resemble Cassian's, 1 3 Inst. IV- 4-$. Inst. rv. S-ia. + Inst. IV, f}'. illud credere malum esse vel bonum, quod discusserit ac pronunciaverit senioris examen. CL Coll. IL 10.

55

J O H N CASSIAN

impossibility be commanded, they arc to attempt it,1 Thus the individual will need to take no personal decision in the way of salvation* 'Apart from the orders of the abbot, let us keep no will at all of our own/ a This stringent discipline* incorporated by St Benedict in his Rule, has become a permanent feature of monasticism. But to illustrate the ideal of obedience Cassian furnishes an ominous example. Patermucius wished to renounce the world* After persistent application he was received into a coenobium, contrary to all the rules, together with his small son eight years old. For the sake of God a man must leave sons and daughters; and therefore the elders separated Patermucius and his son into different cells. They then tested the novice to discover whether obedience or natural affection would prove the stronger* They dressed the boy in rags and neglected him, so that he appeared filthy whenever his father saw him. They beat him without justice or provocation to compel him. to whimper in the presence of his father» Finally the superior of the monastery, simulating anger against the sobs ofthe child, ordered Patermucius to drown him. Patermucius received this as a divine command, picked up the boy, walked to the river bank and threw him. into the water without protest or hesitation. The little victim was then saved by monks hidden near the river for that purpose.5 The story of Abraham and Isaac in monastic dress does not please. When in the Conferences an ascetic is moved to emulate Abraham by sharpening a knife to sacrifice his son, Cassian 4 regards the temptation as Satanic. Whither is this obedience leading ? The indifference of Patermucius resembles Stoic apathy, a subject to which we must return. The early commentators upon Benedict's Rule minimized but perpetuated the defect inherent in this concept of obedience. Paul the Deacon desired the monk to ' Inst. iv. io; cf Benedict, Reg. 6&. jetome, Ep. cxxv. i s ; cf the watered stick in Inst. rv. ζ+ί Coll. π. 14�15, csp. 15, 3. * Inst, xn, 32. 2. 3 Inst, iv, 27�0, For other instances where the superior issues a wrong command, Sulpicius, Dial. ι. ι β; Apophtltegmata in PC LXV. 410, where stealing is ordered. Variants of the Patermucius story circulated in the desert; cf Apoph. Sisoes 10 in PG LXV. 393. « Coll. ti, 7. jo"

THE MONASTERY

weigh the evil of the act in the balance with the evil of disobedience, and * should he consider the evil in the act commanded equal to, or less than, the evil of disobedience, he is to fulfil the command*.1 The simplicity of Basil in demanding that the commands of men must be tested by the commands of God could not be received without qualification by the extreme tradition, for it retained lh& freedom of the individual conscience* The principal difficulty and weakness in Cassian's teaching upon obedience, as in Egyptian teaching, consists in the doubt concerning the person to whom obedience is owed. If Castor had taken the bare regulations of the Institutes without supplement, the monastery at Apt would have had neither ruler nor constitution. Obedience, according to Cassian, is due to the abbas, and in the fourth book of the Institutes this word stands for the governor of the coenobium. But we must beware of understanding it in the Benedictine sense of a quasi-absolute ruler; for the word need only carry the sense of some holy father who presided. Government in Antoniati monachism normally took the form of rule by a gerousia under a chairman* Cassian sometimes writes as though obedience was owed to a group, the elders (seniores). And when we contrast his sparse and uncertain references with the lucid and frequent instructions of Basil, and still more of Benedict, the defect becomes outstanding. Could this rigid ideal of obedience be satisfactorily maintained without some definition of the status of the superior or the constitution of the community ? The theoretical obedience must further have been weakened in practice by his failure to provide for formal and permanent vows, in particular of stability* The omission was intentional ; for Cassian knew and used the writings of Basil, who had introduced permanent vows into his ascetical system.* Basil was great enough to place the coenobite life higher than that of the hermit; Cassian, who hoped that the best of his monks might one day be strong enough to go out into the wilds as solitaries, would not tie them permanently to a coenobium. He regarded Basil as a valuable instructor of the early training in virtue, and used him rather in 1

Schroll, Benedictine Monasticism as reflected in the IVarnefrid-Hildemar Commentaries, p. 184; Basil, Reg. Btev. Tract. 114. 2 Clarke, St Basil the Great, pp. 107-9.

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the Institutes than the Conférences. Egyptian thought also censured the practice of vows in the fear that they might lead either to pride or to perjury.1 If the will of the junior must be piloted in every decision by the will of the elder, some rule of confession and spiritual direction became a necessity* Outside the growing penitential discipline of the Church, without priest or absolution, the coenobites were developing a system of confession and direction. Basil and the Egyptian coenobia had ordered that the subordinate monks should confess all their thoughts to those elders who were responsible for their training. Cassian restated the general principle.* This was in no sense a system of private penance. There were two ideas in the spirituality of the ascetics, distinct in origin, though they were later fused—first the doctrine inherited from Origen that for spiritual persons unceasing repentance was a profitable exercise in the advance to perfection; and secondly the discovery that revelation of thoughts to a senior aided the psychological struggle against demons and temptations» It is true that the contemporary exercise of the penitential system in the Church exacted among other penalties a pubhc avowal of the grave sin for which penance was necessary; and the inchoate powers of the bishops as secular magistrates, powers which were transforming the pastor into a judge and therefore the sin into a crime, were rendering public penance intolerable and inaugurating the process which, during the next three centuries, would lead to private confession before a representative of the Church: the union of this secular process with the monastic practice of frequent direction created the system of private penance. It is easy but erroneous to read the later development into Cassian's words. Neither in Basil nor in Cassian was the confession primarily penitential though it was natural that the confession of gross sin3 should mean a more severe mortification, The confessor need not be a priest ; and the manner in which our authors describe the practice suggests mote an exercise for the younger than an universal medicine : there is no evidence that the seniors also made regular confession though 1

HL Prologue 9. Basil, RFT 26 ; Inst. rr. 9. 3 As in Coll. n. ir. a

i8

THE MONASTERY

it was permissible* And the juniors must reveal their thoughts of every kind, good or bad, to receive comment and direction from their guide» Clearly the system was a legalized and coenobitic version of the consultation found in the desert between a * pneumatic ' elder and a novice, and bears only a distant relation to the private confession known to later ages. But there was another type of confession which brought not advice but forgiveness. This confession could be either an admission to another or (if shame restrained the penitent 1 ) a private avowal to God in prayer—the chief feature of the contrite life which in Origenist thought the spiritual man must lead, an element of discipline essential for the acquisition of humUity and hence of other virtues* In Cassian and in Origen this type of confession was incumbent not only upon the novices but upon all men throughout life, and especially upon those who have advanced along the ascetic's road ; Cassian*s discussion of it occurs not in the Instituteshut towards the end of the Conferences (No. xx). This direct confession to God brings his forgiveness without the mediation of priest or absolution: and it should not be applied to the grave sins (capitalia crimirta) which arc assumed to have ceased with the entry into 'the good litV, but only to the venial sins of thought and inadvertence inevitable in the life of the spiritual. The Origenist desire to uphold perfection as a possible goal necessitated a dextrine that these venial sins need be no burden since the soul could compensate for their commission by works pleasing to God; and Origen, followed by Cassian, produced a list of the methods by which forgiveness could be obtained—baptism, martyrdom, almsgiving, forgiveness of fellow�men, conversion of a sinner, charity, penitence and tears.* Forgiveness was easy for the advanced* All these ways of achieving • CoU. xx. «, τ

Ham. in Lev. a. 4 in Lommatsch ix, p, 192, Under the heading of penitence Origen included consultation with a sacerdos Domini; cf. De Qratlonc 28. fjxiMan wrote * criminum confess«)' without explanation. For contemporary ideas of the value of private avowal to God, cf Chrysostom, De Int, Dei Natura 5.7 m PG XLVm, 746 ; Augti5tmed Confess, x. 3. For a similar list of means of forgiveness, c t Chrysostom, Horn, de Poenitentia 2�3. Cassian in Coti. xx. 8�9 has made certain additions to Origena list, including the idea that when the sins of the past have ceased to prick the conscience the soul is sure that they are absolved ; Gregory, Moralin iv, 71*

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JOHN CASSIAN

absolution are in one sense human acJiicv^mcnts* The power of the Cross in effecting it is not omitted: Even though we should do all this, it could not avail to expiate out sins unless they were blotted out by the merciful goodness of God. When he sees the attempted service we offer to him with a humble heart, he crowns our tiny efforts with his bountiful gradousness, saying Ί, even I, am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for mine own sake, and I will remember thy sins no moreV It sounds as if the soul must work a little before this grace can be bestowed We find the mild western tradition of direction developing in Cassian s instructions to confessors ; while he assumed that they knew it to be wrong to publish what the penitent had revealed, he stressed that direction must be lenient enough to avoid driving him to despair. Learn from your own experiences to suffer with those in trouble: do not intimidate the tempted into hopelessness and death nor drive them into impenitence by nagging. Rather refresh them with gentle and kindly cumulation,1 2. A D M I S S I O N OF N O V I C E S

Here he again railed to display the trim economy of the competent legislator* He recommended a singular decree, in imitation of the Pachomian Rule, that the postulant must first lie outside the door for ten days or longer while the brethren affected to despise him as an insincere applicant. When he had thus shown persistence, he entered the house to be stripped ofhis property and money and to exchange the clothes of the world for the monastic dress of a girdle and a plain, clean robe not of sackcloth, a material which offered the populace such open evidence of maceration that its wearer could not avoid pride. Cassian described the Egyptian garments worn not for utility but for their mystical significance— the child's hood (cowl) to remind the ascetic to live as a little child; the tunics with cutaway sleeves, meaning that he must excise all worldly desires ; the cord and scapular and sheepskin and staff and sandals. An able organizer would not have confused his 1

J

Colt. xx. 8. 9.

όο

Coll, It, ι j , 4,

THE MONASTERY

readers by these irrelevant details. Although much of this dress survives in eastern and western monasticism, Cassian rehearsed it rather because he delighted in the opportunity for allegorical interpretations than because he desired the monks to wear it. For in Gaul he believed that the climate demanded shoes instead of sandals, a thick coat instead of a sleeveless tunic, and that the prejudice of the laity would deride the unaccustomed sheepskin and cowl* If the dress of each brother was uniform, he professed ^difference to its composition and advocated one simple rule of clothing—itonesta vilita$t honourable and cheap. Some Egyptians taught in contrast that the robe should be so squalid that no one would take it if it were left outside for three days*1 Handing his secular garments to the steward, who stored them as a silent threat of expulsion in penalty for disobedience, the novice remained for a probationary year in the guest-house excluded from full membership of the community, instructed by an appointed elder» and responsible for the entertainment of visitors.* Cassian alone required so long a period before the applicant was admitted to association in the monastery. Pachomius had not ordered a novitiate*5 Benedict evidendy found that separation from the common life for a whole year was detrimental to the interests of the novice. Retaining the year's novitiate under an elder, he ordered that it should be spent within the main stream of community life and reduced the period in the guest-house to *a tew days*.4 At the end of the year the novice was admitted formally to membership of the community, and placed with nine other 1

Inst. i. i-io. For eastern interpretations of the mystical meaning* cf Evagrius» Ad Anatoiium. in PG XL. 1221 ; Basil, RFT 23 ; Sozomen m. 14. For shabbiness, Apoph. Isaac 12, Pambo 6. * Inst. rv. 6-7: cf. HMxxxi, Prcuschcn» p, 03, 3 Suftomen in. 14 credits Pachomius with having ordered three years' probation, and Amelineau accepted this. But nothing in the lives of Pachomius or the Rule translated by Jerome speaks expressly of the reception of novices, and new monks seem immediately to take part in the life of the community. Ladeuze (pp. 281-2) therefore concluded that there was no period of probation apart 60m the original test of admission. The vague novitiate ordered by Basil in RFT 10 is apparently confined to those who have come from an evil hfe. But Basil's more stable profession could not have dispensed with preparation and training.

* Res* sa. 61

J O H N CASSIAN

juniors under the general supervision of a senior monk, called by Jerome a *dcanV He might be required to share his cell with another brother as Cassian had shared with Germanus at Bethlehem» but was not allowed to leave it without the permission of his superior» 3.

WORK

Egyptian thought regarded work not as creative nor even as primarily useful to the community but as an expedient method of keeping body and mind occupied. Cassian held the same stultifying conception. He believed that although work increases the ability for contemplation, cures accidie, and acts as a necessary 1 aid to prayer, it need fulfd no useful purpose* He extolled Abbot Paul who collected palm leaves every day and burnt them at the end of a year, and advised anchorites (possibly his coenobites also) to avoid agriculture, which compelled absence from the cell. Eastern thought always preferred types of manual labour like basket�making, gardening, linen�manufacture, bee�keeping, the growing of fruit and vegetables, which did not distract the monk by driving him too far afield*3 Much of the work would be common serving tasks, cooking, cleaning and washing. Since the whole house was consecrated to God, its contents from saucepans to chalices must be treated reverendy. One Egyptian monk, preparing a dish of lentils, let three beans fall to the ground, was reported by the steward to the abbot, judged to be 'squandering the sacred property*» and compelled to make public penance (a 4 Benedictine principle)* There was a rota of serving in the kitchen, which ended on Sunday night at Vespers» when the outgoing servants washed the feet of the brethren (another custom inherited by Benedict) ; on Monday morning after Prime they handed the 5 pots and utensils to the next monks on the list. The question arises, how much intellectual labour did Cassian recommend ? He mentions writing as a form of labour and 1

Jerome, Ep, ΧΧΠ. 35; Inst. H. 12. 3* IV. 7* IV. IO. I. Inst. n. 12. 2* a. 14, χ passim. * Inst. v. 39, χ. &�14, 24; Coll. xxiv. 3�4, 11�12, For cultivation in Egypt cf Sozomen vi. 28 and Ladeuze, p. 3^5; Jerome, Ep. çxxv. 11. 4 Inst. tv. 20; Reg. 31 ; omnia vasa monastetii cunctamque substantiam, ac si altaris vasa sacnta conspirât. Cf Basil, Reg. Brev. Trad. 14,3-4. I Reg. 35; Inst. TV. 19. 1

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reading as a customary exercise, and cites the Italian Simeon in Egypt, who was kept busy by the supposedly useless task of copying St PauTs episdes in Latin. There would be little rational explanation for the preservation through the Middle Ages of a classical author like Nicander did we not realize that the copying of manuscripts was often manual and not intellectual labour* The attitude of the Latin fathers towards pagan learning was not uniformly hostile ; but so far as we can ascertain from his writings, Cassian meant by knowledge only spiritual knowledge (gnosis), the worship of God, and despite his trained Latifiity he contrasted the simple faith of Galilean fishermen with 'Ciceronian eloquence*—a comparison once drawn, with the reverse conclusion, by Augustine in the pride of youthful scholarship» The epic excitements of Roman hterature interfered with prayer, its intellectual stimulus with the childlike faith of the disciple.1 Succeeding generations of monks would maintain this suspicion. 4. WORSHIP

In the early years of the movement, the ascetic laymen wandering far into the desert had physically dissociated themselves from the corporate worship of the Church. Some scholars have imagined this retreat as a lay and spiritual protest against the growing secularity and ritualism of the Church. We can now see this to be a misreading of the evidence. No doubt the bishops faced under a new guise the old problem of the rival authorities» one popular and one jurisdictional, of the martyr and the clerk; and the existence, on the left wing of the movement, of separatist bodies 1 like the Messalians and the 'Apostolics' proves that the success of the bishops in organizing ecclesiastical administration among the ascetics was not absolute. But Athanasius by his patronage determined that the newly formed societies should be integrated into the life of the Church, and by the end of the fourth century 1

Inst. tv. 12, v. 30, xn. 19: Coll. 1, 20. 2. χτν. iz: cf. De Ine. m. 15, 2 on the apoetle Thomas—'homo videlicet rusticus et imperitus, dialccticae artis nescius, ptulosophicae dïsputationis ignams*., ,qui nihil omnino acïebat nisi quod domina doccntc cognoverat' : cf. Augustine, Confess, τα. $. α. For the general attitude of the Church to pagan learning see P. de Labriolle* Latin Chrbtianity, pp. 11�27» 4I5�S� 1 Bpiphanius, Haer. LXI.

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the Egyptian ascetics had without reluctance passed into the diocesan organization* It is true that we can find plenty of evidence for the dislike of the monks for ordination, evidence which scholars hke Workman and Reitzcratein used to prove that monasticism was 'the protest of the lay spirit'*1 But the ascetics fled from me episcopate rather because they feared and rejected responsibüity which, they supposed, must create pride and destroy their opportunities for contemplation and perfection* A bishop must care for worldly things ; and hence Chrysostom opined that few bishops could attain salvation2 and people rumoured that elevation to episcopal office had diminished Martin's supernatural powers. Monks from aristocratic families might despise the priesthood as too humble an omce; but the generality fled ordination from an exaggerated motive of humility» considering the priesthood as a holy duty which an ascetic might not undertake without danger of pride. Forcible ordinations form a humorous background to the ecclesiastical history of the period, and opinion could extol not only the humble concealment but the false denial of orders*3 Not even the authority of Athanasius, who compared the refusal of responsibiUty to the concealment of the one talent in the Gospel,4 could check the shrinking from office. Cassian supported this tradition. He recommended his monks to flee from, bishops as from women» and hailed the action of a priest who in humility declined to exercise his office.5 In the west a more Roman sense of responsibüity prevented the doctrine taking root, ft is true that Benedict during his early years as a hermit needed a miracle to warn him that it was Easter Day and that Gregory the Great was still attacking the ascetic nolo episcopari in his Pastoral Rule.6 But though we observe in Gaul the conventional reluctance to elevation» we rarely find the old oriental refusal of orders. Martin, though against his will, had been compelled to accept the see of Tours; and his austere life had so demonstrated the union of rigorous ascetic and capable bishop that Cassian*s exhortation to 1

The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal, p. 13. Hont, In Act, 3,4; Sulpicius, Dial. n. 4. i Cott. τν, 20. 3; ΗΛί L 14, Preuschen. p. 8. Λ Ep. XLIX. to Diacontius. 5 Inst. xx. 1Ä, xn. 20; Coll. rv. 1,1. * Coulfon, five Centuries of Religion i, p. 19*5 Gregory, Reg. Past. 1. j - o . 3

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avoid ordination carried httle weight* From the monasteries of southern Gaul trained ascetics went to fill the diocesan sees, among them many ofhis own friends and pupils. The physical difficulty of desert Eucharists and of the hermit hfe had likewise prevented some early Antonians partaking in the sacramental worship of the Church. Some hermits declined communion; 1 but since public opinion censured them, the problem was normally physical rather than protestant. As the population of the desert grew and the hermit communities took shape, they developed the practice of regular communion on Saturdays and Sundays at the central church; while there are faint and uncertain traces of the primitive practice of private communion in cells from the reserved Sacrament upon other days. An outlying hermit arranged some device, like a sevenfold division of the food supply» to remind him when the days of corporate worship had arrived.1 If there was avoidance of communion, it was again motivated by humility. Some monks had interpreted St Paul's command that none might partake unworthily, as a bar to communion* Cassian wrote: We ought not so to abstain from the Holy Communion because we know ourselves to be sinners. Rather we ought with eagerness to come more and more in order to receive medicine and cleansing for our souls, recognizing in faith and with a humble heart that we are unworthy to receive so great a grace and that we need healing for our wounds. Otherwise we could not worthily presume to receive the Sacrament even once a year, as is done by some monks who so reckon the glory and saving power and value of the heavenly mysteries that they think none but immaculate saints should presume to receive; forgetting that by partaking we are made pure and saindy. Indeed these men run the risk of a greater arrogance than they seem to themselves to be avoiding, because when they do receive, they judge themselves worthy to receive. But to partake every Sunday for the healing of our sickness» with the humility οί heart by which we believe and confess that we can never 1 1

Coll, n. 5 : HL xva. 9, xxv. j 1 xxva, 2, ux, 2.

Basil, Ep, xciii in PG xxxn. 4*5, HM vin, 35, Preuschen. p. 48; Palladius, Dial, vn; Moschus, Pratum Spirituaie 79. Basil {Ep. xcm) also mentions celebrations on Wednesday and Friday, CJC

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on account of our merits come to these holy mysteries, is far better than proudly to believe even at the end of a year that we are worthy to receive.1 This appears to recommend a weekly communion. But there are certain signs that the normal practice at Marseilles included daily reception. *lt is necessary\ he wrote, ' for us to eat the holy flesh of the Lamb every day V * the Body and Blood of Christ, whom every day we receive*. It is not impossible that a daily communion was the custom in the monastery at Marseilles. There is, however» no final proof; and Cassian's cotidie may be figurative*3 In spite of the reverence shown by Cassian for 'the heavenly manna*4 he lays surprisingly httle emphasis upon it in relation either to the common life or to spiritual progress. As a result of 1

CoU. xxm. ai. 1-2. * The evidence for a daily Eucharist in Cassian has been neglected: InsL vi. Si necesse est cotidie sacrosanctis agni camibua vescL Coll. MIL. 30. 2. To those afflicted with evil spirits 'communionem vero eis saerosanctam numquam meminimus interdktam: quin immo si possibile esset etiam cotidie eis inpextiii earn debere censebanl.' Coll. xiv, 8. j i corporis et sanguinis Christi quem cotidie siraùmus. ColL ix. 21. The interpretation of supersubstanlialis possibly also refers to the Eucharist. On the other hand in CoU. xxii. 5. 1, he implies a particular day of préparation: 'pcaccavcndiun est, ne camh integritas praecedente tempore custodita in ca praedpue in qua nos ad cotnmunionem Salutaris convirä praeparamus nocte rtaudetur.' The story in Coll. xxn. 6 loses its entire point if there is a daily oammumon, But Cassian may be remembering a brother in Egypt. who could not receive daily, in Coll. xxn. 4-7The evidence of Hilary, Augustine and Gennadius is assessed by Lcclcrcq, DACL w, 1, 2459, For Augustine, c£ especially Ep. LIV, 2: calii cotidie communicant corpod et aanguini dominico, alii ccxtis djebus aedpiunt.' Cf also Tract, in loann. xxvi. 1 j» De Civ. Dei xxt, 2$, Gennadius, being a fellow-citizen, ù of particular importance for the practice of the neighbourhood. He says: ' quotidie eucharistiac communionem pexcipere nee laudo nee vitupero, omnibus tarnen dominida dicbus contmunicandum suadeo et horror, si tarnen mens sine aâéctu peocandi sit' {De eccL doom, xxm in PL aan. ï2tf). But it is not certain that Gcnnadius was the author; cf. Turner inJTS vu (1900), pp. 78-99. Benedict orders the septimamrii to cat and drink a little in the early morning except "in diebus solernnibus' when they must fast on account of the Mass, This probably implies that there was no daily Eucharist {Reg. 3$). Chrysostom+s communions in the dry were certainly made from a daily celebration; cf Horn, in Eph. τα. 4, PC ixn. 29. Cf. Jerome, Ep. ixxi. 6. * Cf Colt. ix. 21 on the Lord's Prayer: "licet istud quod dicitur hodie et ad praescntem vitam possit intcllcgi; Le, dum in hoc saeculo commoramur, praesta nobis hiinc panem,* * CoU. XKU. 7,

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the new�found time for devotion and the development of the offices of the psalter, the ascetic movement had made in 1rs worship 'a shift of emphasis' * which appears in all the monastic sources of the period. In the individualist ethos of the desert the Eucharist began to lose the notion of a corporate offering and to be regarded as a vehicle for individual reception. In the scattered references among the Conferences, Cassian regards it only in this light. The concentration upon unceasing prayer similarly magnified the place of the offices in the monastic scheme. The offices which he introduced into Gaul make a curious amalgam of the customs of Egypt and Palestine. His method of instructing the Gauls in worship was descriptive—first to rehearse what the Egyptians practised (Inst, n), then what the easterners practised (Inst. m)t and to leave his readers to unite them into coherence» This fusing, which he clearly intended, leads to a tangle, which he did nothing to unravel, in a chaotic passage upon the early morning omce» so chaotic that it has provided matter for radical disagreement among the liturgical scholars of today. Cassian would have preferred the Egyptian custom of celebrating Vespers and Nocturns only and allowing the daytime for continuous prayer in private ; but regretfully conceding that outside Egypt the debility of human nature demanded fixed points of prayer during the day, he imported into Gaul the Palestinian offices of Terce» Sext and None. 1 We can construct a table of offices thus : (i) Nocturns, the midnight office (Le. Mattins); twelve psalms with prayers between each psalm, followed by two lessons chosen from the Old and New Testaments. (On Sundays both lessons were chosen from the New Testament.) The Egyptian number of twelve psalms at Nocturns and Vespers was a practice so moderate in comparison with the feats of the heroes that it was maintained only by a supernatural sanction, which Evagrius expressed in the doctrine that the number twelve particularly pleased God, and which Cassian traced to the miraculous decision of an angel.3 1

Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy^ pp. 220�7. * For the Egyptian dislike of Terce* Sext and None, c£ Apoph. Epiphanius 3, and an early antidpation of the same idea in Clement, Strontateis vu. η. 3 Inst. u. 5; Antirrheiieus Vî. 5 (Frankenberg 523) ; cf HL xxxn. 6.

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JOHN CASSIAN

(ii) The dawn office (Lauds) followed the end of Nocturns either immediately or after a short interval». Psalms 148-150. There were no lessons in any office copied from. Palestine. Here Palestine allowed a period of sleep which Egypt condemned as lax» (hi) Morning office (Prime)1 to mark the begiiming of the day's work« Cassian's monastery at Bethlehem had instituted it to interrupt the otherwise empty time from Lauds to the third hour» a period which allured the idle into sleep. Psalms 51, 63, 90. (iv) Terce» (v) Sext, (vi) None : three psalms at each, no lessons* (vii) Vespers : twelve psalms with two lessons as at Nocturns* There was no Compline, which first appeared in the Rule of Benedict. The Egyptian ban upon sleep after Nocturns and Lauds effectually prohibited any further office between Vespers and Nocturns* A monk was appointed to secure punctuality by studying the stars» On Saturday night they celebrated a vigil which transferred their period of sleep to a brief hour between the end of the vigil and Prime« Vigils upon the eves of festivals were already becoming a popular practice in the secular Church» so popular that opponents were accusing them of promoting immorality, and advocates were justifying them by the extreme ckjctrine that God favours prayers offered to him during the night.* Monks and seculars faced the single difficulty that it was not easy to remain awake* (Not quite the only difficulty, perhaps: one writer upon vigils argued that mere is nothing like indigestion for driving away the Holy Spirit.) The desert radiers debated whether it was permissible to nudge a brother who fell asleep during a vigil»3 and 1

1 follow the traditional opinion of modern scholarship that there is a difference in Cassian between Lauds and Prime, For the view that he is referring only to 2 single office (Lauds), cf" Jr Froger* Les Origines de Prime, accepted by Louis, Brou in JTS (1047), p. 240. 1 have given reasons why I am unable to accept Dom Froger*s thesis inJTS (1948 ), pp. 176-182. For further criticism of Froger's thesis, though with a dînèrent result, cf P. Masai, *Les noms des heures et les textes de Cassien intéressant l'histoire de prime ' in Archivum latinitatis medii aevi χτχ (ΐ94ΰ)> Pp. aj�37^ a Jerome, Adv. Vig. ο; id. Ep. cva. 9, ax. 3% Chrysostom* Horn, in Ait. 26. 3�4. Ct Inst. m. 8�9 with Basil, Ep. cevu. 3. * Apoph. Pointen 92; De Vigiliis^ attributed doubtfully to Nicetius, PL ïxvm.

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MONASTERY

ascetic practice altered the method of psalmody to avoid this disaster. At the normal Egyptian Nocturn one monk sang the psalms while the others (who were warned against spitting, coughing, yawning, groaning and any other noise except a spontaneous sigh of ecstasy) sat silently in low stalls. Even though all sang the Gloria and though the officiating brother was three times changed, this method of psalmody, perhaps originating in faulty education or shortage of books but soon rendered unnecessary by the custom of memorisation, was likely to induce sleep in the tired, The vigil included variety of method and posture—three psalms said antiphonally while the monks stood, then three psalms read by a single monk to whom the congregation responded from their seats, then three lessons* Egyptian psalmody was designed to ensure understanding and prevent haste. In a long psalm the superior stopped the cantor after ten verses to allow silent meditation upon the verses just sung. At the end of the psalms, after standing for some moments of silent prayer, all prostrated themselves in adoration; but the prostration must not be too long lest sleep overcome the prone and resting worshipper, who must rise with the leader to pray with arms outstretched* He who came late to an office must not enter but must lie in prone penitence on the threshold as the brethren emerged from the chapeL Though at the night offices entry before the end of the second psalm was humanely permitted, this rule evidendy led the late monks to rest pleasantly outside the door of the chapel or to go back to bed, for on these grounds Benedict ordered the offenders to remain exposed to public penance in special seats within the chapel. This, the mildest form of discipline, was imposed for trivial faults like the breaking of crockery* For more serious misdemeanours a brother was suspended from public "worship, "when it became an orlènce for another to speak or pray with him.1 Faults for which suspension was imposed included impertinence, slow or grudging work, speaking with one who was not a cell-mate, trying to receive a letter or to answer it without the permission of the abbot, holding another brother by the hand* A category of sins which included quarrelling or pride or r

fttsf. IL 15-16, rv« 16,

U9

JOHN CASSIAN

stealing, dealings with women or going out without permission, was punished by Ideating or expulsion» Such was the system of offices described by Cassian from his eastern experiences. The picture is unsatisfactory because incomplete. It may be doubted whether the average Gallic monk knew how to conduct parts ofhis offices after reading the Institutes, There is no provision for, and brief mention o£ the Eucharist, whether daily or weekly. The account of Lauds and Prime is so confused as to require patient unravelling before it becomes clear. The description of vigils needs amplification» Doubtless he laboured under the disadvantage that he was describing and advising rather than legislating and therefore could not introduce systematic rubrics. He estimated these practical derails as of litde worth in comparison with the coming treatment of spiritual ideals and he supposed that his public must find the subject wearisome and trivial. But although he repeated that in fear of boring his reader he curtailed his liturgical essay,1 he could have achieved brevity rather by sacrificing a marked W e of exhortation than by failing to clarify the horarium and the rubrics of the omce* Nevertheless in the rccomrnendation of eastern customs to the west he permanendy influenced the history of liturgy. S, ACTS OF MORTIFICATION

Egyptian asceticism had wavered in its concept of the motive of mortification. The search for God in solitude uncovered or emphasized the sombre truth that the carnal instincts of human nature are the barrier to pure worship and saindy character* 'The evil which 1 would not, that I do*: and the hermit could only mould his will upon the divine will if he conquered the instinctive self-centredness of fallen humanity by ceaseless rnortii^tion; the sinful desires must die* But they had not determined wherein the carnal lusts lay. The semi-dualist atmosphere inherited from pagan philosophy drove some ascetics to think that they must blame the body, that the body held the soul bound and imprisoned in its tomb, and therefore that mortification aimed at a physical object, the laceration and repression of the body that the soul might be freed* In practice Egyptian feeling moderated austerity and 1

Inst. u. 18.

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THE MONASTERY

restrained fanaticism. But the average hermit, who did not reason as dieologically as an Evagrius, might in such an atmosphere permit and applaud excesses in his hardier and less balanced contemporaries* The unnatural self-crucifixion of an Ammonius, who cut off his left ear with scissors, developed from this undefined doctrinal background* And where the ascetic cultivates the spirit of mortification not as a discipline for the soul but as a release for the body, he will soon equate asceticism with virtue. If the body is the enemy, those who torture it must attain a holiness impossible to those who content themselves with the mitigated restraints of reasonable self-denial* From this source springs the competitive asceticism of a Macarius. If one hermit has recited an unprecedented number of psalms or lived in a mosquito-infested marsh, he has reached a standard of sanctity which sets a goal for his fellows and which can only be surpassed by one who repeats the psalter still more frequently or occupies the marsh for a longer time. Asceticism has become an end instead of a means* Fanaticism will always be confined to a minority; and the Egyptian methods rarely rivalled the bizarre penances of some Syrian hermits and stylites. Nevertheless we have sufficient evidence to assert that the western movement needed a sane theology of mortification which we cannot detect in the though of Sulpicius Severus, whose writings dominated Gallic monasticism before the arrival of Cassian* In one of the Conferences Cassian stated and discussed the key question : is fisting in itself good, as justice and other virtues are good ? If it is a virtue, then those who eat arc coriurdtting sin* But Scripture prevents us asserting that dining is sinful by rtvealing that every creature of God is good. Therefore fasting is neither good nor bad but ^different like 'marriage, agriculture, riches, retirement into the desert, vigils, reading and meditation upon Scripture*, which humanity may use btmefitiaUy or refrain from using* If we welcome an unexpected visitor, it is better to break a fast than to fail in hospitality; if a monk fasts when the Church advises and permits him to feast, he is irregular and unreasonable,1 1

Though the relaxation means an earlier meal father than more food {Coll. xxs. 2J). 71

JOHN CASSIAN

if he fasts until he has weakened his physical strength and yet will not eat, he is not praiseworthy but a murderer ofhis body. When he attempts to prove his holiness by his capacity for fasting, his real motive is the desire for human praise, an odious motive unacceptable to God. Fasting is an instrument towards virtue, a tonic to stir the soul to the acquisition of charity and purity of heart.1 This admirable passage has enunciated his three principles of mortification: first it is an instrument to be used or unused according to need; secondly it must remain secret;1 and thirdly it must be restrained. In these few chapters he eliminated competition, publicity and excess, the three temptations of eastern asceticism. Antony, if he is truly reported, had bequeathed the aphorism that the one indispensable need of the ascetic life is 'discretion*;3 a virtue to which Cassian devoted a whole Conference. The monk he compared to a tight�rope walker, balancing his way between the twin abysses of laxity and excessive austerity, which equally harm his souL Too much food is no worse than too little food : if the requisite meals and sleep are rejected, the manufactured weakness will pander to the carnal mind. Submission to the elders is nowhere more important than in the practice of mortification.* But having elaborated sound principles of mortification and having repudiated the eccentricities of eastern fanaticism, Cassian demanded an exacting self�discipline in the common and sober acts of austerity. The extreme standard expected only three or four hours' sleep and two paxamatta (large buns) daily as sufficient food.* His coenobites would imitate the Pachomians in sleeping between Vespers and Nocturns (perhaps five hours) and they were permitted, though not encouraged, to sleep between Lauds 1

Coll. xxi. 13�18; cf. ι. 7. i, 10. 3» οι. η. 5�11, xvn. 2&. Inst. v. 2X. 33 hence an emaciated body and sackcloth should he avoided as leading to pride {Inst, XL 13,1. 2. 3). * Coll, a. 2. The phrase docs not occur in the Ltfe of Antony, But Cassian had almost certainly read the Life. For the metaphor of the bee in Inst, v, 4 may be taken Crom Vita Antonil 3 ; and CoU, vu. 22.1 appears to be a paraphrase of Vita z$. * CoU. 11 passim ; cf 1.20�1, v. 18, 2, and especially u. ιό. τ ι 'ninuetatesacoualcs sunt,.., nimietas iciunii ac voracitas,, .vigiliacum imtnoderata conttnuatio... somni giavissimi torpor/ ϊ CoU. XU, 15. 2. 1

7*

THE MONASTERY

and Prime (perhaps three hours or more except on Friday night when the vigil cut the rest to one hour)* If they needed plenty of sleep they could obtain it, and he desired that they should take what was necessary and dispense only with excess.1 The two paxamatia of the desert probably approximated to six ralf-inch slices of a modern cottage loaf. But he mentions dishes of soaked beans and fresh vegetables and evidently partook of cooked food at least on Saturdays and Sundays or when visitors were dining. He desired to give the brethren two whole days of rest and refreshment by cancelling the normal western practice of a Saturday fast** All days except Saturdays, Sundays and holy days should be days of self-denial, but Wednesdays and Fridays, the 'station fasts * when dinner, normally at midday, was postponed till 3 p»m., were the severe days of the week. At week-ends a voluntary supper, which the austere might omit, was provided in the evening. Lent was already recognized as a season of special abstinence and the customary rigour was relaxed between Easter and Pentecost, a lenience which he devoted part of the twentyfirst Conference to justifying. (During the same period they did not kneel in prayer.) But believing that no one could decree food-laws for diffèrent appetites and physiques, he did not exclude more delicate foods, provided the meals were plain and easily prepared. The half-starved can pray no better than the glutton.^ Like all the early ascetics he disapproved of baths, though he laid down no rules. An early eastern treatise, which has perhaps without sufficient justification been attributed to Evagrius,4 reluctantly allows baths if absolutely necessary, provided that the whole body is not immersed, that scents and oils are not employed, and (exquisite mortification) that both hands are not used to wash the race. 1

Inst. m. 3. 3, * Inst. m. 0-10. The western custom is shown in Innocent Γ, Ep. xxv. 4 to Decentius of Gubbio. At Milan, however, the fast was not observed ; cf Augustine» Epp. xxxvL 2, iiv. 3; CabroL DACL a. 2, 2353; Gibson, p. 21Β n. 2; Gazct's note ad lot, î J«ii. ii. 1 a» πι, ι a, v. 5�9. 20�4; Colt, XXL 11, 25�30. 4 Pseudo�Athanasius, De Virginitate χι in PC xxvni. 252�81 ; cf E. Buonaiuti, Saggi sut Cristianesimo prmüttro (1923)• pp. 242-54* Goltz, Texte und Untersuchungen, N.F. 14. 2ύ. Augustine expected monthly baths in a community, Ep. CCXt 13, but both these writers deal with women.

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Are the Institutes successful as a guide? Did Castor get what he wanted? Even without those passages from the Conferences to which we have referred in explanation ofthe monastic regulations, the bishop of Apt received ascetical theory of high value. Caspian's sane and moderate instructions rebuke the strange ideals of many of the heroes of the Historia sLausiaca and the Vitat Patrum. The self-mutilation and the wild austerities of an Ammonius are explicitly rejected/ A prudent sanity appears throughout the Institutes. But if Castor was desiring detailed régulation—and the form of Inst. l-rv shows that he was—then there is something lacking. The theory, under which the monastery must be organized, is fully explained or will be explained when the Conferences are published. But the practical details which will execute the theory are discrete* they suffer from a haziness, a lack of the crisp incisiveness of the shrewd organizer* The precepts are blurred. How are the offices to be said in fact? Why describe all the Egyptian garments when none of them is to be regarded as necessary? How far should monks be allowed outside their cells, and to what kinds of work should they be set? Are there any arrangements for sleeping ? Could the rule of obedience be made workable without vows and without a clarification of the constitutional status of the abbot? Too many questions are left in the air. Probably Cassian refrained of set purpose from laying down the details too fully. He was forced to report rather than to legislate, and he was well aware that any details reported might be unsuitable in the conditions of Gaul: and he was therefore careful to allow scope for a varied working out in practice under local conditions« Nevertheless his lack of system frustrated his intentions and avowed his mental incoherence. Unlike Benedict he intended to travel from Institutes to Conferences, from practice to theory, from the earthly to the mystical. But since he could not separate external from spiritual, he inextricably mingled practice and theory. His treatment of daily institutions led him at every turn to ascetical theology, to subjects which could more appropriately have been left to a later book, with the result that 1

Coll. xn. i. 3: 'neque enim beams apostolus ad abscissionem. rnanuum aut pedum aut genitalium inmiti nos praeceptione conpellit, sed corpus peccati.1 Contrast Evagrius's praise of Ammonijs in HL x\. 5.

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THE MONASTERY

in the Conferences he was sometimes forced to repeat what he had already written in the Institutes.1 He partially reserved the aims of the spiritual life for later discussion: and this meant that the rationale of the regulations became unintelligible to the inexpert. And although he designed the Conferences as literature for coenobites as well as hermits, he confessed by implication that they dealt with the higher ideals of the solitary, towards which his unprepared coenobites would naturally strive. His efforts to restrain the unready from seeking solitude reveal the unwisdom of a method and an assumption which proclaimed solitude as the ultimate destiny of the successful In theory he urged them to the desert, in practice he restrained them: and if doctrine persuaded them to leave the coenobium, of what use were rubrics for the coenobitic offices ? Moreover he always succumbed to an innate temptation to preach, and mus has immersed the clarity of rules in a morass of exhortation. He loved solitude and spirituality, he did not love details, and hence he was fundamentally uninterested in the minute regulation of daily life. He did not see the need for an exact code ofrules to which reference could be made* At Apt, and in his own lifetime, the written Institutes could be supplemented by verbal advice. But farther afield, and after his death, his influence was limited by this failure to provide fominous regulation. In the eighth century an unintelligent monk attempted to present the practical rules of Cassian by codifying the detailed instructions of the Institutes in the form of a numbered rule, known as the Regula CassitmiJ* It is a peculiarly 1

Cf. Inst, v-xn with Coll, V; Inst, x. a- f£ with Coll. xxiv, i i - i z ; Inst. vn. 3-4 with Coll. rv» etc * The Regula Cassiani was published from two manuscripts in 1906 by Dr H, Plenkets, 'Untersuchungen zur Überliefeiwgsgcschichtc der ältesten lateinischen Mönchsregeln', pp. 70-84 in Quellen und UntersucSîungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters1. Some modem scholar (e*g. H- Ledetcq, D ACL s.v. Cenobitisme {1910)» col. 3191 ; H, B. Woïkmau, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal* ρ, 123 tL 2: Κ. £. Kirk, Ute Vision of God, p. 269) assume that thia goes back tu Cassian himself» published for his own monastery. But : (i) Neither Gennadijs Lxn nor Photius 197, in their catalogues of Cassian J writings» mentions the Regula. (ii) The author of the Rule has taken his material exclusively from the first four books of the Institutes, There are no regulations of which we do not hear in the Instittttes, and very few new phrases. Moreover the order of the rules follows exactly the order of the Institutes. Regula 41�a is patticukrly striking: one

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JOHtÎ CASSIAN

unsuccessful rule. The Institutes were not intended to be a code and could not be set forth in that form. Perhaps the outstanding defect in Caspian's work is the failure to provide an adequate framework for his spirituahty. manuscript simply gives the text of Inst. TV. 33-8, while the other manuscript (Escurial) gives a shortened paraphrase. The passage in the Institutes is an address to a novice which Cassian has attributed,, on an isolated occasion, to Abbot Pinufius. The Rule orders this address to be given at the admission of every novice. In the Institutes it is in a literary sense spontaneous* in the Rule it has become absurdly codified. (iii) The title of the Regula is given thus ; * [ncipit excarpsum régule ex omnibus institutionibus Cassiani collecta, breviter explanata de instiruris &c regulis monastetiorlim* fPienkers, p, f}), (iv) The author of the Rule is continually simplifying the Institutes, their grammar and phraseology The long and smooth periods of Cassian ate shortened for the benefit, presumably, of less educated monks. One change is significant. The Cassknic word coenobium is always altered to mmasterium or congregatio, (v) The facurial manuscript shows the influence of the Rule of St Benedict in the chapter headings, which have been altered* apparently, to correspond with the Benedictine chapter headings: eg. Cass, xxxi: 'Si fratri impossibiha iniungantur' is equivalent to Ben. u m n , cf Cass, xxvi with the fust words of Sen, xxxvm* and the chapter headings of Cass, XVü and Ben. XUIL See Plenfcers, P· 73· It is clear« therefore, that the Regula is drawn from the Institutes. There seems no justification for regarding it as having any origin other than as a précis or paraphrase of the Institutes.

76

CHAPTER ΠΙ

THE

CONQUEST OF

SIN

1. THE ORIGINS OF ASCETICAL THEOLOGY

The New Testament pictures lite in Christ as in part an ascetic life, a daily bearing of the cross. The Christian has been incorporated by baptism in the Body* and cschatologically shares already in the lite and worship of heaven; the fruit and sign of this participation is simple—charity* or the imitation of Jesus. But this imitation is impossible without renunciation* without sel£ sacrifice« without that death to the world which can be called mortification. Yet an ascetic life is not identical with an ascetical theology nor does it necessarily beget it. Scholars like Hannay have noted the lack of system in the early asceticism of aie Church» the absence of any ordered thought about the nature and purpose of ascetic practices» except as expressions of renunciation in general terms* Others have sought to detect a primitive spirituality» simpler and less organized, than the ascetical theology which Cassian and his masters created. Eastern and western spirituality as a whole conceives the ascetic life as a slow progress upward toward God» a climb of the hill by spiritual exercise—prayer» mortification of the carnal lusts, growth in the knowledge of God—until the soul has become Christ�like» God�like. The characteristically ascetic view sees the Christian Üfc as an ascent of a ladder. The concept of the scaia petfectbnL·, of the 'ascent of Mount CarmeT» underlies Catholic spirituality in both east and west. Dominated by this Hellenistic notion of life as a progress, some scholars have sought to show the lines of primitive and New Testament sphituality in terms of a ladder towards a goal, a ladder with one or two rungs instead of several. But in Scripture and the apostolic age the idea of an ascent is not found. The whole concept of'spirituality*, of 4 ascetical theology' is foreign to the New Testament and die earliest Christian writers. The reason is plain: St Paul or St John» Hermas or even Irenaeus» could not conceive the Christian life in terms of progress towards a goal because they believed that the 77

J O H N CASSIAN

goal had already through God's acts been reached. The kingdom, had come; the eschatological event« though its consummation was in the future, was also a present fact. The Christian had died to sin, he could be described as righteous, saintly» perfect. A less exclusive or more realistic Church of a later age has rightly interpreted the word 'saint* or the word 'holy' as meaning 'separated for God*; but if this exegesis is designed to minimize the moral content of the words« it is an unhistorical transference of a later recognition that the members of holy Church arc in fact not always morally holy. The primitive community expected holiness« sanctity, perfection. No doubt they were partially mistaken in their interpretation of the teaching ofJesus: under the influence of apocalyptic hopes and the intense psychological experience of corporate conversion they unoVriXsthnatcd the persistence of old habits, the subdety of sin* But the Church was seen not as a school for sinners but as a society of saints; and in a society of saints filled with the Spirit concepts of life in terms of a ladder towards God would be thought irrelevant and erroneous. Until the Christian life began to be conceived in the light of post�baptismal training for heaven, ascetical theology did not exist. It is true that circumstances sometimes forced the earliest Christians to vary their rigorism» St Paul's attempts to educate the Corinthians to righteousness» Hermas's zeal for a second penitence which would recreate the forgiveness of baptism, show that the problem of sin within the Church could not be forgotten; but the dominant idea of the holy society« which we see in the apostolic fathers and the apologists and which influenced later thinkers like Augustine who could not allow that sinners, though they were in the Church, 11 formed part of its structure, only lost ground during the third century as the Church discovered popularity and modified its eschatological sense. The presence of crowds began to transform the common idea of the Church from an eschatological society of the sanctified to a sanctifying and educating society. Et was no longer possible to imagine with any evident plausibility that the average Christian already possessed the kingdom and shared in the banquet. It was easier to suppose that the Church must educate him in order that 1

This remains true in spite of Retract, π. i8.

7*

THE CONQUEST OP SIN

he might in the future possess the kingdom» The change, though never consciously realized, was none the less inexorable; and in the liturgies confession of sin and the eastern association of reception of the Eucharist with forgiveness begin to make their appearance. This change did not of itself create ascetical theology. But it formed the background for the division of society into ascetics and commonalty and influenced the ascetical theory of life as an ascent. We can see how the need to exhort the virgins to moral 1 exertion drove a man like Cyprian to speak in terms of ascent: but the critical step was taken by the Alexandrian theologians who, under the influence of semi�Stoic theories of life as an advance or progress (ΐΓροκοττή), began to describe the Christian life as a * training ground for souls \* Once moral thought is turned to exercise or ascesis to enable die sinful soul to destroy its sins and climb to God, the foundations of ascetical theology have been prepared« With the conversion of the educated, Greek theology penetrated and afiècted the Christian Church* The primitive absence of analysis could not satisfy philosophers trained in Hellenist ways of thought. Anaxagoras had written that * the goal (τέλος) of life is contemplation (θεωρία)*,* and for the Platonist school this meant contact with the Absolute through the intuitive intellect (nous). Asceticism was used as a preparation of the intellect for this contact and union, which itself was described as gnosis, knowledge of the supreme God. Through Philo and the Gnostics these phQosophical conceptions were moved into the realm of religion* Religion was now the true philosophy, and the aim of religion was intellectual contemplation.* With Clement of Alexandria this intellectualism entered 1

C£ Cyprian, De habitu virginum 21 : non est ad magna fadis atceruus. quem sudorem perpethnur, quern laborem, cum conamur ascendere colles et vertices moiutura? quid ut ascctidamus ad caelum? etc. * Origen in fact applies this phrase to the abode of the saints after earthly death. {De Principiis II. XI, ί ) ; but equally it Hts hi» concept of mortal life. Cf, Contra Celsum YI. 44: γυµυάΐτιον το ύιτίρ aprrffc 5 Clément» Strom, π. a i . 130. 4 Hausherr, 'Les grands courants de la spiritualité orientale'» OCP 1 (1935). p* i2l.

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Christian theology. At once a Hellenist and a devout Christian, he made little effort to fuse the two points of view, which in his writings appear inconsistent and incompatible* There is an unresolved antipathy between the pagan philosophy and the Christian faith. He seems unable to express himself in any categories but those ofphilosophy, and yet when the ideas which he is expressing are examined and compared with other passages in his work» a Christian basis is found. Sometimes gnosis is purely intellectual : sometimes it represents that knowledge of God given not merely through the intellect, but through the whole being of man* By gnosis two principal virtues are acquired« one Christian and the other Stoic—ägape, the love of God, and 'apathy *, the removal of all human passions. Apathy means not only the mortification of the evil instincts, but the suppression of all desire of whatever kind, so that it becomes identical with the Stoic ataraxîa, a word which Clement did not shrink from using.1 Agape on the other hand remains a Christian idea, an essential feature of the moral perfection involved in gnosis. Clement's perfect gnostic is filled with brotherly love for all men, since his love shares in the divine love. The gnostic does not act from fear of God, for his love is, in the famous expression, disinterested, the purest love acting without hope of reward or fear of punishment1 Thus Clement, though his writings contain much perfectionism and a doctrine of sinlessness, is the first to picture God more as the goal of the Christian than as his present possession. There is a quest for gnosis. But he was not himself a mystic or an ascetic, in the sense in which later centuries have understood those words. There is no emotion, no incitement to mystical phenomena such as ecstasy, no dire renunciation of the world, which indeed he was more ready to accept than to spurn. He did not Live the Christian gnosticism with his whole being. But when his pupil Origen, logically Christian in intellect and ascetic by temperament, received these unsystematic and undigested theories of a spiritual life, a further step occurs in the development of a system of Christian sphituality* 1

Strom, tv.y, 55; dc Fayc, Clement, p. 276. Ci. also Völker in Theologische Zeitschrift (Jannary 1947), pp. 15 rT. * Strom, rv. 22. Agape normally means what Nygrcn (eg. Agape and Eros (JET) n, p. 148) would call er<M, AS with all the Origenists* 80

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Tn the homilies of Origen it is possible to trace all the salient features of an ascetical system.1 Where Clement had regarded spirituality as a matter of philosophical theory without a compelling connexion with the daily life of the individual, and did not give the impression that he was desperately determined to attain to perfection, Origen's less gentle personality was more preoccupied with the interior means by which perfection might be acquired* Therefore we find the first substantial signs of what later came to be called ascetical· theology—a deeper research into the origins of sins in the human heart; into the nature of virtues; into the relation of demons and sinfulness, and the struggle of the soul against demons; into the value of temptations in the training of the soul; into fasting and prayer and meditation upon Scripture; his study of all these marks the transitional stage from the Clementine philosophy to the practical moralism of the ascetic. Throughout there is a deeper Christian basis than in 1

This has been executed in a valuable monograph of Walther Völker, Dos VollleommettJieitsideal des Origenesy who is criticized by H, Koch. Pronoia und Paideusis, pp. jz9-4°> and by A. Licskc, Die Theologie der Logosmystik bei Origenes, pp. 8iff. Volker claims that a truer estimate of Origen's spirituality is found m the homilies than in the philosophical works. Koch complains (p. 331) that he leans too much upon these homilies, especially on the twenty-seventh homily on Numbers, only known through the translation of Ruhnus. who in regard to hi) translation of the De Principiis has no great reputation for accuracy. Furthermore Koch points out that since the homilies are designed for less advanced Christians, the simplichres, they are less likely to contain Origen's fundamental thought. It is true also that Volker with his knowledge of later mysticism has read into Origen asceticism and mysticism as the deepest feature of his teaching whereas they are only hints and aspects of his work. But although Völkern conclusions upon OrigcnTs theology must thus be accepted with reserve, he has laid his finger upon exactly those tendencies on which the monks were to draw, Rutlnus's and Jerome's translations draw attention to the emphasis which the men of the ascetic movement laid upon Origen's teaching. Koch holds that Origen*s allegory upon the wanderings in the wilderness in the twenty-sevenrh homily is not mystical in intention as Völker contends. But from our standpoint the dispute is irrelevant, since Rufuius and his contemporaries certainly read it from the ascetic point of view, W. B, Borncmann. In investiganda monachatus origine* in an attempt to counter Weingarten by demonstrating that rhe origin of momstiasm ties not in paganism but in Origenist theology, collected a useful catena of passages illustrating Origen's teaching on the spiritual IhV See also de Paye. Origine 1» pp. 129f£* 194f.; Denis. La Philosophie d'Origine^ pp. 234 fr ; W, Seston. 'Remarques sur le role de la pensée aborigène ^ „ ^ jçj ûr igines du monachisme" in Revue de Pkistoire des religions cvm, pp, 197-aU. C|C

81

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Clement The Cross of Christ rules his thought»1 in discipleship of Christ lies the true road to peifèction for the soul. This discipleship means renunciation of the world.: and while Origen proclaims this separation to he spiritual rather than physical· retirement,* his interest in the life of St John the Baptist in the desert points to the important change which is taking place« Like some pagan philosophers, Origen united in his own person the philosopher and the ascetic* His work made a more significant impression than that of Clement» since he presented, in his own person the incarnation ofhis ascetical ideals. As soon as the flight to the desert began, and monks looked round for principles upon which their asceticism might be conducted» this Alexandrian corpus of doctrine lay ready to hand* The leading Greek ascetics of the desert based themselves upon primitive spirituality as interpreted by the mteUectualist influences of the Alexandrian school The doctrine of Clement and Origen was developed by the ascetics into the first system of spirituality known to the Church, the Origenism of the late fourth centuty* The title of 'Father of our literature of spirituahty', which Henri Brémond reserved for Cassian himself,3 should he given to Evagrius, who under the influence of the Alexandrian fathers may be regarded as the chief founder of the spirituahty both of east and west 2. T H E S P I R I T U A L I T Y O F E V A G R I U S

The recovery of the works of Evagrius has been one of the romances of modem scholarship. Until recent years it was believed that his books, condemned as a result of Justinian's heresy-hunt in the sixth century» had been lost, apart from a few unsatisfactory fragments, some in Greek, some in Latin (perhaps parts of the Latin translations made by Rufinus and Gennadius), and collected together at the end of the fortieth volume of Migne's Patrciogia 1

Dc Faye* Orighte m, pp. 2246"; Bigg» p, 354; Völker, pp. 102. 215 ff. Segregari autem dicimus non locis sed acribus, nee regionibus sed conversatJonibus {Lev. Horn, XL τ). * In hi* introduction to Jean Brémond, Les Pères du désert, p. L The Cappadociaa writers, particularly Gregory of Nysaa» anticipated, though with 2 very different emphasis, dementi in the theology of Evagrius and may have influenced him. But they stand rather outside the main ascetical tradition which Cafcian inherited. 1

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Graeca. Syriac translations of a few books were thought to exist, and when Otto Zöckler in 1893 published his study of Evagrius based upon the Migne documents» he added in an appendix a German translation of one Syriac fragment In 1907* however, an Armenian priest B. Sarqisian, published a much larger series of documents containing the Armenian translations of a great part of the missing writings. In 1912 the German W* Frankenberg produced the Syriac versions of several of Evagrius's compositions: and since his time the labours of H. Gressmann« J. Muyldermans and I* Hausherrz have compiled a number of Greek fragments which are often the originals of Frankenberg's Syriac versions. Further, a proportion of Evagrius's work escaped the inquisitors by sheltering under more orthodox names like Basil and Nilus. Modern scholars have thus recovered the bulk of the works of the leading Greek teacher among the desert fathers. We can sec that in him the spiritual life has become a carefully defined process» of which a brief sketch must now be given* Origen had taken over the Aristotelian distinction between the € active* life (the ascetic combat by which vices are conquered and virtues acquired) and the contemplative life* In Evagrius this artificial division receives another emphasis. For Origen the two lives are complementary and overlapping,* for Evagrius they are rigidly distinct and successive. Thus some of his books (Capita Practica and Antinheticus) are for those in the earlier stage, others (CapituL· I*rognostica and Gnostieus) for those souls who have attained to the contemplative life« His theory of the 'active' life is soon summarized. Those who are familiar with western ascetical literature find themselves upon familiar ground in the reading of Evagrius's treatment of the way of virtue. Origen's interest in the instruments of perfection has acquired in Evagrius that authentic flavour genetically known as * monastic** The search for virtues and the practical method of acquiring them* the cure of faults« vigils and prayer, compunction of heart and humility, accidie, pride» fornication and the rest— here for the first time we find them analysed and dissected 1

See Bibliography. gu-rt= γαρ ττροξίϊ ο ΰ η θιωρία Ävtu οβτίρον, quoted by Völker, pp. 77, 143. Far earlier anticipationa, cf. Philo, De Fuga et Inventione }<S. 1

S3

*4

JOHN CASSIAN

methodically. *Know thyself* seems to have become a concentration upon human vice and virtue« and upon the negative process of removing sin* Evagrius devised that classification of evil which later developed into 'the seven deadly sins** He described the root sins as eight in number—greed, fornication, avarice, sadness, anger» accidie (boredom with the ascetic life), vainglory and pride: 1 the greater portion of his works deals directly or indirectly with their elimination. For the whole active process is directed towards a negative goal—�apathy. Without apathy there can be no gnosis, apathy is the essential condition of agape.* In his conception of apathy there are ^consistencies. But while he is ready to admit that even to the απαθής soul temptations and the attacks of demons never cease he could not avoid being led by the former associations of the word to hint of a state where the soul became immune from eviL No longer does the Απαθή; man face the temptations of incontinence.3 Jerome's accusation that Evagrius was using the word to imply that the soul 4 must become either a stone or a god lacks foundation, since Evagrius regarded apathy as a God�given state. But the negative forms of the two words 'apathy* and ataraxla, and their history» forced him and his disciples to conceive the ascetic life in terms of a negation, ofa stripping. Origen had avoided the term apathy : s the Origenist passed far beyond this hesitation* Evagrius is harking back to Clement without any ofhis world�accepting philosophy. This theory of the ascetic hfe as a stripping of the soul finds its most notable presentation in Evagrius's doctrine of gnosis and prayer. The highest state of gnosis consists in tkeotogia. which is knowledge of the Holy Trinity filling the mind (nous), a condition identical with his most characteristic phrase, the state of *pure prayer* (κοτθαρά ττροοΐυχή). Pure prayer does not only mean prayer separated from sin. The purity of the prayer must be judged from its intellectual as well as its moral aspects» Since God is simple and infinite being, the mind will be unable to approach 1

C£ the Antiffheticus m Frankenberg 473�545 and PG XL, 1272-Ô, * PC XL. liar. J PG XL. iaja. 4 Jerome. In Ctesiph,, Ep. exxxm, 3, J Except in Contra Celsum vrn. &, where the term is not philosophical. «4

THE CONQUEST OF SIN

him so long as it remains complex* i.e* burdened with wandering thoughts« with spiritual images, or with intellectual concepts. Prayer is the Üfting up of the mind to God (Evagrius is the author of this famous definition) : τ but the mind cannot attain to him unless it is stripped naked (YVUVOî, ψιλοί, κωφοί, âAccAos)« Hence not merely evil thoughts or irrelevant thoughts hinder pure prayer, but aU thoughts. Evagrius can define prayer as *the expulsion of thoughts*.1 The highest part of the soul must be deprived first of its passions, then of its thoughts and its images; yet it is not left in vacuity, for in its pure state it becomes filled with God, with the light of the Holy Trinity so that it shines like some sparkling sapphire.3 Nous has become the temple of the Holy Trinity.'1 In such gnosis the mind loses self-consciousness and attains to a condition named by Evagrius anaesthesia, which corresponds to die spiritual ecstasy of later writers.5 Two chief points are noticeable in the thought of Evagrius—it is systematic, and it is primarily mtellrxtualist. Instead of the Gospel simplicity we are presented with an ascending ladder, each rung of which is attained in order to make the higher rung possible: (i) The practice of the virtues; (ii) Apathy; (iii) Agape; 1

De Orot, 35- In what follows I have accepted Hauahetr's argument* for the Evagrian authorship οι De Oratione printed among the works of Nilus {PG Lxxrx. 1165�200; cf. Hausherr's article 'Le traité de l'oraison d'Evagre le Pontique', p_A M Jan-April 1934. If this be rejected» the De Oratione remains doctrinally coherent with Evagrian thought* was written by one ofhis pupih, and is sufficient evidence for Origenist spirituality. * De Orot. 70. J Frankcnberg 435; PG XL. 1244, The Pachomian Theodore beheld the Lord in a vision as a 'sparkling sapphire1 ; cf Lefort, p. 19Ö. * Frankenberg 437; Greek published by J. Muylderrnaru, Museon xtrv {iQJi)* p. 53; cf. Frankenbcrg 3S95 cWotinoto in De Orat. 120. The word ΐκστασις he uses, in PG XL. 1276, ΐκοταστί Tcoi? φρενών, to mean madness and a great evil. But cf Cent. vu. 30, Frankenberg 455. I have been permitted, by the courtesy of Professor F, L, Cross, to consult the forthcoming Patristic Lexicon, where the references show that gKjtrrtttTis is rarely used in the fathers to signify the religious condition Implied in the west by Casskn's Latin counterpart excessus mentis\ except in Gregory of Nyssa; cf. Daniélou* pp. 276«;

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JOHN CASSIAN

(iv) Gnosis of nature,1 the contemplation of God in his creation; (v) Gnosis of God, the ultimate blessedness.1 For good or evil we have here the first codification in Christian history of the steps by which man ascends to God. And although agape holds a place on the ladder« the intellectualist character of the process is prominent God can be seen by the nous, it is the nous which must he stripped to and gnosis and the divine indwelling. The intellect is intuitive : Evagrius is far from the rational intellectuaUsm of an Aquinas. Underlying all his thought is the Platonist belief that a man is only truly human when he has become pure intellect3 'when his nous shines like a jewel in the divine light Evagrius was the principal teacher of Cassian, the chief authority for his ascetical doctine* The influence of others—of Origen, Jerome, Basil, Chrysostom—must not be underestimated; but the general lines of the ascetical ideas which Cassian propagated to the western Church are found in Evagrius. As far as the spiritual life îs concerned, there are in the Institutes and Conferences few ideas which cannot be paralleled by similar or related ideas among the writings of Evagrius: while in Cassian's most characteristic doctrines, the influence of Evagrius is chiefly noticeable. Hence this Httle-lcnown father stands at that crucial point of Christian history where eastern and western spirituality diverge, * This phrase appears to mean both the contemplation of God in his creatures and yet a rising above those creatures to see them in their right perspective as vanity. In Heuaustic thought the first stage of theoria was the entry into the pieroma of spiritual and heavenly beings; and in the parallel thought of Christian writers the contemplation of angels and 'celestial things1 is conceived as preceding tlteologiat the contemplation of God in bis Being; e£. Origen, Contra Cehutn m. 56"; Comtn. In Matth. xn. 15; De Prinàpiis 1. 7, etc ; Evagrius« Cf«i. 1. 88, Prankenberg 12$ ; Nilus. De Vol. Paup. t » . Cassian transferred the thought to the west with phrases like 'the contemplation of the virtues'» 'the contemplation of celestial things* ; but it meant hude to him and played no important part in his thought. * PG XL. Ι33Ι : οττοµονη xed &nis αφ' ών τίκτεται άττο&ια, fjs fnyovov ή αγάττη» αγάπη 51 Ούρα yvdwKos φυσικής, f\v 5ια5ΐχ€τα[ βιολογία κοΛ ή Εσχάτη µακαριάτη^ Palladius quotes the later part of this in HL XL. 1. The phrase ή έσχατη µακαριάτη; is characteristic; cf Ep. vni, 7 of Basil, a work in tact by Evagrius; cf. R. Melcher» Der S Brief des ht. Basilius. 1 Hausherr, OCPi, p. 122.

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the ancestor of Simeon the New Theologian as well as of much in the western ascetical tradition. Through Cassian s own variations from him, and through the sane western interpretations of Cassian, Evagrian influence did not penetrate the west so deeply as the east. 1 1 'To give a name » wrote Hausherr, *to the great eastern mystical school which passes from the fourth to the fifteenth and even the twentieth century» we should have to speak of *' Evagrian spirituahty"/* A. T H E AC ΤUALIS

VITA

When Cassian published the Institutes and Conferences between 425 and +29, more than a quarter of a century had elapsed since he had known Evagrius* He was working in a new milieu and with a new language. Yet in spite of the change in environment and in vocabulary» we should expect to find the key�words of Origenist spirituahty reappearing, under their Latin equivalents, in the work of the ex�Origenist—the close interest in virtues and vices; the division into the life of purgation (ττρακτική) and the life of contemplation (θεωρητική) ; apathy and agape ; ecstasy and pure prayer� gnosis of God. All these technical terms of eastern asceticism we look to find in Cassian; and we are not disappointed» Cassian is as unsystematic as is possible for the architect of a system. Superficially it would seem an error to describe him as the architect of a theory built by his predecessors, for his spirituality is rooted in Origenist spirituality* Most of the terrriinology occurs at the same points, with the same general significance. Nevertheless the word architect is not wholly out of place. Not only has he changed the emphasis at certain important points; in the process of translation a benefit accrued for which he can take no credit whatever, but which caused him to be the originator of something new. Many of the Greek words carry philosophical associations 1

RAM (Jan* 1034), p* 169. Although the influence of Evagrius upon Cassian is so marked, he is never mentioned in the writings of Cassian» presumably because the memory of Evagrius savoured of Origenism. Tbc anonymous ascetic from Pontus mentioned in Inst. v. 32 is a probable reminiscence of Evagrius. A number of passages showing direct or ideological dependence are collected by S. Marsili, Giovanni Cassiano ed EvOgrio PontitO, pp. 87�103. B. CapeUc in RUE {1939}, p. S54 holds that Marsili has only shown close doctrinal parallels, without literary dependence. 4

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with a long history* The removal of these associations by the mere act of translation inaugurated the new spirituahty, western spirituahty, of which Cassian may appropriately be described as the founder. Words like apathy and gnosis and theoria carry with them a non�Christian history: their Latin equivalents are free—if not for Cassian himself, at least for his readers—from the background of Stoic and Gnostic and Platonist* In his interpretation of these terms he will not wholly lose the half�Stoic outlook of some of his sources* Yet for the first time an opportunity is provided for the development of Christian spirituality away from the particular environment of Greek priilosophical asceticism. The realization that the word apathy has never been canonized by western theology will demonstrate the importance of these necessary linguistic changes. Just as Evagrius had written some books for the soul engaged upon the active life« others for those engaged upon contemplation, Cassian wrote his Institutesforthe lower slopes, his Conferences for the contemplative heights* (For both these writers the vita actualis1 ιτρακτικος, ßbc. docs not mean life lived in the world instead of in a monastery, but the practice of the virtues by the inexperienced ascetic who has not attained to contemplation.) Books v-xn of the Institutes therefore deal with the avoidance of the eight principal vices and the acquisition of virtue, aiming at that necessary preliminary of contemplation which Evagrius had called apathy« but which Cassian named 'tranquillity of mind* or "purity of heart \ When the state of tranquillity has been achieved through the vita actualis, the ascetic may go forward to the Conferences and contemplation* This at least is the theory underlying his arrangement: in practice the details worked out a Httle differently. Whether there were not sufficient Gauls who could yet be encouraged to the contemplative life; whether he was naturally an inconsistent writer who had no clear system in his mind; or whether common sense and a wide knowledge of Scripture showed him that the rigid Evagrian division was impossible to maintain—the Conferences continue to touch frequently upon the active life.

8H

THE CONQUEST OF SIN 4� FLESH A N D SPIRIT

Hb ascetical theology rests upon a conviction of the antagonism in man's nature between *flesh* and 'spirit'—more than an antagonism, a war in which neither ceases to attack or defend. The reader of the Institutes and Conferences meets this doctrine explicit in Conference rv and frequently in lesser passages, implicit at every tum in ideas like apathy, the angelic life« the natural buoyancy of the soul* The dualist strain in some Egyptian thought raises the question whether Cassian has also fallen into a veiled dualism, whether he attributes the origin of evil to the material body. His phrases 'girt with this muddy flesh*, 'surrounded by frail flesh* (a phrase which some ascetics used to excuse slackness, if the allegations of Pelagius are justified),1 though commonplace in Christian writing, invite suspicion in an Egyptian context* We find on the contrary that his precautions against dualism are almost over�elaborate* Chapters 10 and 11 of Conference rv discuss the various meanings which Scripture has assigned to the word 'flesh* and conclude that in the phrase ' war of flesh and spirit',fleshcannot mean the material substance of the body but must mean the carnal desires» He argued from the analogy of Satan and the demons, spiritual yet sinning substances, that sin is caused not by the placing of the soul in the body but by a pure act of the will. But he wished to go further, to declare in the tradition of Origen 3 that the war of flesh and spirit, found in every man and therefore the creation of God and therefore good, benefits humanity* The flesh desires comfort, food, sleep, baths, luxury; the spirit pursues the things of the spirit, is ' unwilling* to eat or sleep, likes dirt and austerity. Man's will is balanced between these opposing forces, wishing to achieve the highest without toil or suffering, anxious 'to serve Christ while keeping men's regard', 'to unite with Christ's hurnility so long as this does not lose the honours of the world', in a word, to be pure and lazy. But the lusts of the flesh press upon man and prove purity to be impossible without effort and mortification and vigilance. At the other extreme the spirit, 1

Pelagius» Ep. ad Demet. XVI; Coll. 1. 13, ι τ χχπ. η. a; Inst. Xn. 17. 4; Coll. 1. 14. ß, rv. 14. 1 De Pnndpik m. 4. 1-4.

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unless anchored by bodily weakness, would soon pass beyond human capacities Into fanaticism and irrationality and pride. The tension of flesh and spirit drives men to the rightful mean, opens *a sane and moderate path to virtue between the two warring elements and teaches the soldier of Christ always to march upon the king's highway* (the philosophers* theory of * king's highway* or 'royal road* had descended from Philo to common use in the desert).1 If the struggle ceases, as in eunuchs, there ensues lukewarmness, teport a lack of moral effort. The carnal instincts are therefore good. He compared them to iron, a metal given for the benefit of humanity but corrupted into weapons that kill.* We observe that while this interesting doctrine has excluded theoretical dualism, it has sanctioned as thoroughgoing a practical dualism as it is possible to conceive within the limits of a still Christian thought The essence of the Christian life is seen as a war within the personahty. It would be difficult to exaggerate the distant effects upon the psychology of die medieval mind» But if the material body, he continued, does not create sin, it affords excuse for sin (here he approached the grounds of Pelagius*s accusation) and its frailty is a reason for forgiveness—a doctrine also based upon a contrast with the demons who could not receive forgiveness because (he thought) as spiritual substances they were without excuse* Matter therefore contributes to sin, incites to sin: and the inevitable carthiness of matter» as in the natural functions of the human body, safeguards the soul from the pride of Lucifer. Thus we may summarize his doctrine as an argument from experience that the body, not evil in essence, likes and encourages evil, though its union with and war against the spirit is nevertheless for the benefit of the spiritual life* The Christian way therefore is not quiet or gentle or pleasant, it is a battle fought in the soul* This battle is a condition of spiritual progress: Neither the slothful nor the slack, neither the delicate nor the tender, take the kingdom ofheaven byforce,but the violent Who then are the violent? They are those who bring a stirring assault to bear, not upon 1

Apoph. Beryamin s« Poimen 32; c£ Heussi, p. i88, Inst, VU. 3^4. For Chrysostom^ view, cf. Hont, xm in Rom. 7, and Hoch» Lehret pp. 35-7, 1

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others but upon their own soul; those who snatch away their soul from all lust after temporal things and are proclaimed by the Lord to be noble plunderers—these are the violent who by devastation of this kind forcibly invade the kingdom of heaven.1 Apart from this violence there is nothing but indifference, hike� warmness, pax perniciosa,1 There is one significant comparison Ijctwecn Cassian and his younger contemporary and neighbour, Vincent of I^rins* Vincent stated his ideal of the monastic hfe in a quotation from the Psalms: 'Be still then, and know that I am God**3 Cassian was intimate with Scripture; yet this quotation does not occur in his works. 'Advance to attack' more appropriately expresses his oudook; for the lustful will is the chief adversary of man. 5. T H E G O A L

The ultimate goal (telos) is the kingdom of heaven, but the aim (shopos) of the purgative process is purity of heart, pwitas mentis or puritas cordis, together with its kindred phrases (most commonly 'tranquillity*, *hnmobility\ or * freedom from disturbance*)* which present the Cassianic equivalent of the 1 Origenist apathy. 'It was through Cassian , wrote Bardy, in an essay upon the Christian doctrine of apathy,1 'that there spread in Latin�speaking countries the conception of a perfection elevated 5 above all passions.' Whether because he suspected its Stoic associations, or (more probably) because Jerome's rnisundcr� 6 standing ofthe Pelagians, whose doctrine of sinlcssness he imagined to be equivalent to the Origenist doctrine of apathy, had brought the terminology into discredit in the west, Cassian omitted the word itself. Apart from the term, an Origenist conception of apathy may be found within his writings. The object of the purgative process must be to place the monk in a state of freedom 1

Coll. XXTV. 26. 12.

1

CoU. τν. 7. 2. Commonitory 1.1,2. The quotation is also used in HM 1 (PL xxi. 398), which Cassian may have read. Doubtless he feared to lead his pupils in the active life towards passivity. 1 According to Paucker, impertitrbatio is Caspian's cwict equivalent for Αττάθίΐο;. S Art. Apatheia, ίη DSAMT rase, m, pp. 7 * 7 · ^ * G. de Plbival, Pelage, pp, 2 7 3 ^ , aäo. 3

pi

JOHN CASSIAN

from the passions» to produce in the mind a concentration of thought upon God, in the soul an indifference to all apart from the Creator. To this goal the monk must march along the royal road unswervingly» must close his eyes like the competitor in a shooting contest to all but the bull,1 Here an ascetic has explained the purpose of his asceticisms, unimportant in themselves but means towards the skopos. The Egyptian narratives prove that some monks failed to comprehend the reason for their practices. This lucid statement of a goal is significant for western spirituality. In the original sense apathy had implied a permanent state of sinlessness, a freedom from temptation possible of achievement even in this life. The history of the word probably prevented clear Christian thinking upon the subject: and while Evagrius was definite in a Christian sense, that temptations continue until the end of life, he could remark upon his death-bed that he had been free from at least one type of temptation over a period of years. Similarly Cassian described how Abbot Serenus became immune, like Evagrius, from all temptations to incontinence; and the immunity is portrayed in a way reminiscent of Stoicism-4 in discussing the heights of perfection he wrote: 'One who has conquered the attack of sins and now enjoys a secure peace (securitate pacts) and has passed to the desire of virtue itself, will keep this condition of good continually,. **; and in the next chapter he quoted the text of Ï John iii. % 'He cannot sin, because he is born of God1 in the same sense* though this immunity from sin is applied only to the greater vices*3 Finally, his doctrine of continence is governed by the impossible ideal of living immune even from natural processes. Behind this theory lay the ideal of the angelic life. It was universally held, and not only by Christians, that the aim of human life must be to Uve like the angels, whose existence was not governed by the material conditions of corporeal being. From Origen it became a commonplace of ascetic thought.4 Evagrius 1

Inst. V. 12. 1-2, V. is» vi. η, 1�2; Coll. I. 5. I« 3 * Coll. va. i�a; c£ χπ. η, 6, Colt, XL 8. 4* 9. 4. 4 Völker, p. 25. who shows ainnities with Philo, the Mysteries, and Ncoplatonism. C£ Cyprian, De hob. virg. 22. Theophilus in Jerome, Ep. c 10; HM(PL xxi, 401,413.423,425) ; Chrysoitom, Horn, in Mattli. IXVUL 3 ; Cons. Zack. ία. <S; Rufinus, Apol. u 7, etc. 02

THE CONQtJflST OP SIN

used the word isangelos of the monks, and the similis angelis of 1 Cassian reproduces it. The notion that man must not only aim at contemplating and worshipping and praising God like the angels and at doing his will on earth as the angels in heaven, but at attempting to step beyond the physical conditions of common life, we cannot but regard as disastrous. Against apathy in the Stoic sense, however, countless passages can be adduced from Cassian—that sinlessness is impossible, that temptations never cease in this Hfe, that there is always need to fight. We have seen already his conviction that the bodily instincts are by nature beneficent* Perfection in this life is a relative perfection,* not to be identified with sinlessness but rather with the completion of the purgative process, which can be described as the state of purity of heart* It was possible to achieve a freedom from the grosser passions, but this did not mean immunity from temptation* Moreover, the abandonment of the term apathy produced two excellent results. The conception was now couched in Scriptural language; and was no longer negative in form. The phrase was an appropriate synonym for apathy because Scripture in Origenist exegesis represented purity of heart as the moral platform whence God could be seen; and thus it corresponded to the rung of apathy in the Evagrian ladder. The negation underlying the word apathy might rather breed the fanatical indifference of a Patermucius who could drown his son or of a Sarapion the Sindonire who could parade his naked body through the streets of Rome, than the charity of a saint. The elimination of the term did not remove negation from Cassian s thought: but he saw purity of heart as the reverse aspect of the positive virtue of charity. Whereas Paul wrote a hymn to charity, Cassian defined purity as 'not to be envious, not to be puffed up, not to be angry, not to do wrong, not to seek one's own, not to rejoice in iniquity, to think no evil. . Λ 3 Thus Cassian believed purity of heart to be the negative side of charity, as Evagrius had thought apathy to be the foundation of agape» 1

De Orations 113 ; cf. Clement. Strom, vn. 10, $7; Coll, ix, 20 {cf. xxm. 16. 2}. For Gregory of Nyssa, cf Daniélou» pp. 161-2, 17J, 3 Coll, χι. 12. 3 Coll, 1, 6. J; cf, 7, 2: prindpalcmscopon, Le. ptiritatem cordis, quod est Caritas.

93

JOHN CASSIAN 6. THE PRINCIPAL SINS

The Evagrian list of eight principal sins is the basis of Institutes v�xn: gluttony, fornication, avarice or covetousness, anger, dejection, accidie, vainglory and pride*1 In origin the list attempted to classify not sins so much as the root instincts in human nature which lead to sin. While Evagrius considered them more as 'thoughts*, almost as temptations, Cassian treated them as sins produced by the corresponding temptations, though he recognized that the instinct itself was valuable and that only its perversion was evil. The last eight books of the Institutes represent a prolonged and searching attempt to portray their nature, their causes and their cure. The order is not random. While pride and vainglory, immanent in all the vices, are placed at the end, the first six follow in a theoretical but somewhat arbitrary sequence of cause and effect, rerriinding the modern of nothing so much as a line of trucks shunted by a railway engine. Because they are so mtimately ' Cassian has changed the Evagrian order ; in the Aniirrheticus dejection precedes anger. For the Hellenistic origins of such list* see W. L. Knox» Sonte Hellenistic Elements in Primitive Christianity, p, $. Origen» in his great allegory comparing the journey of the soul to that of the Israelites to the promised land, had allegorized (he hostile nations of Canaan into the vitia which the soul must expel, e.g. In lesu Nave u There is no clear enumeration of the capital sins until Evagrius, who may he original or may be drawing upon Egyptian teaching. Gennadius (xi) says of the Antirrheticus that Evagrius 'aut primus adverrit, aut inter primos didicit* the capital sins. Since Cassian in CoU. v. 16�18 interprets the seven nations of Canaan phis Egypt as the eight principal vices, it is probable that the number eight was selected by Evagrius through a Biblical exegesis similar to that of Origen, The change to seven capital sins was made by Gregory the Great (Moralia xxxi* 87} who (probably under the influence of Augustine, eg. In loann. xxv, ιό) treated pride as the root sin from which the other seven proceeded, amalgamated tristftia with accidie, and included envy. Thomas Aquinas regarded pride and vainglory as synonymous for the purpose of the catalogue, and therefore the final western list became pride, envy, anger, accidie» avarice, gluttony, fornication. POT the whole history see Zäckkr, Das Lehrestiide von den sieben Hauptsünden, and Die Tugendlehre des Christentums; ah» a useful summary in F, E. Brightman, The Preces Privatae of Lancelot Andreutes (iooj), pp. 319-31, who, however, quotes Eutropius of Valcntia, The work De Oeto VitiL·, printed in PL T.XXY, I - I I under the authorship of Eutropius» is in fact nothing but extracts from Coll. v. 2.10-16, 24-25, with a few minor altérations (e.g. Christianus for monachus)^ additions and changes of order. It is not surprising that Dom Besse can say that *as Eutropius develops his thought, the teaching of Cassian becomes more and more evident* (C£, art Eutropius).

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coupled that an attack upon one is an attack upon all and conversely a surrender to one is a surrender to all« and because gluttony acquires its capital place in the list as the root instigator of the corrupting series* lasting and abstinence must become the first and most valuable element in all ascetic practices. It must be admitted that this expanded catalogue of vice make? decidedly tedious reading« It is true that he displays an acute sen» and an accurate knowledge of the inner warfare of the ascetic's life. By these moral homilies he intended to drive the mind to seek the reason for sin« not in superficial symptoms but în the latent evil of the human heart. The victim of a blow with the fist feels resentment not because he surfers physically but because he fails to control the inner weakness ofhis soul; just as a house falls, not because the winds and storms beat upon it and overthrow it but because it was originally built upon sand* He was trying to emphasize that there is 'no victory without a fight'*1 fight» strive, press on, struggle, resist, conquer—these are the key-words of the Institutes. He will allow no one to run away from temptations; they must be met« faced, overcome« Sin, unless it offers hope of scandal» does not interest the human mind* Sordid viciousness has few attractions for the reader who recognizes that the variety of sins possesses less reality than the monotony of sin. The responsibility for this fatiguing dreariness rests with his predecessor. Evagrius had written of the earlier steps in the spiritual life as a search for apathy by stripping away the passions from the soul; Cassian therefore in describing the road to purity of heart treats exclusively the negative aspect of the moral struggle. Warring and striving have been stressed by many other Christian moralists whom the spinclessness of human nature has forced to advocate a battle against sin rather than a battle to find the good; but none so strongly as Cassian. Where a wiser guide might say €here is the good—fight for it', Cassian can only repeat 'here is the evil—fight against it*. The privative alpha in Evagrian apathy has thus exacted a double tolL First, it has surrounded the ascetic progress with a dingy and repellent atmosphere: the war lasts so long, the enemy is so aggressive 1

Locum victoria habere non possit absque advcrsitate cemrruniint {Coll, xvw. 13. 4).

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the armour of God (though assumed) so rarely mentioned in his pages that a hesitant monk uncertain of the powers of his will might be pardoned for ialling into dejection* By the author's own admission dejection led to flight, and would be deepened by the standard and doleful contrast between Gallic incapacity and the supposedly superhuman monks of iron portrayed in the glances at eastern ideals* One might conjecture that the monks of Marseilles suspected the Orientals to be but men; perhaps that they had even read in Jerome's 147th letter how a monk had used the very sanctuary of the cave of the Nativity as a secure trysting-placc with his beloved. But in Cassian they would find a rarefied air which they were urged to inspire mainly (so it seemed) by a grim exercise of their own faint will-power. Ascetical theologians for their own purposes always emphasize that God is the goal rather than the means by which the goal is attained ; the knowledge that God stands at the top of the ladder does not always help the one-legged man faced with the first few rungs* But on top of this normal temptation of ascetical theology which Cassian» in spite of allusions to the Spirit and the mdwclling Christ, has not wholly avoided* his preoccupation with removing sin has unwittingly created a gloomy aura of discouragement* Secondly, this pervasive concern with sin may lead a man to turn inwards upon himself* to make continual examination ofhis own vices and virtues. Consideration of sin, if it be healthy» must grow out of the love and knowledge of God. 'Sin... is the shadow cast by the light of God intercepted by any attachment of the will which prevents it iUuminating the soul. Thus knowledge of God gives rise to the sense of sin» not vice versa.'l Cassian illustrated his basic conviction of this Biblical truth by a parable of two men* one with good eyesight, the other half blind, entering a house to make an inventory of the inrniture; while the shortsighted would see only the tables, chairs and beds, his companion could count trinkets and utensils and miniature ornaments. Where the average Christian imagines that there is Httle evil in him, the saint in whom the divine glory has illumined the dark and sinful corners can understand the true content ofhis soul. As the monk advances towards purity of heart, he begins to recognize his real 1

E. I. Watkin, Monument to St Augustine {1030), p, 10S,

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sinfulness.1 Yet, practically» the negative Evagrian emphasis has curiously overshadowed this intellectual recognition that the knowledge of sin proceeds from the knowledge of God. The Institutes induce in the reader the impression that the knowledge of sin precedes that of God» that the ascetic must ceaselessly probe and poke about the muddy sediment ofhis soul until he comprehends the nature ofhis sins. Contemplation of sin which has not arisen from the instinctive avowal of an Isaiah who has seen some fringe of God's glory will not only fail to cure sin; it will suggest sins to the tnînd as easily as a medical handbook suggests symptoms to the hypochondriac. The disciple of the Institutes might imagine that the spiritual life consisted solely in a selfimproving cultivation of the self. 1 was once wont to meditate on my own heart, and to dwell all at home, and look little higher; I was still poring cither on my sins or wants or examining my sincerity: but now, though I am gready convinced of the need of heart-acquaintance and imployment, yet I see more need of a higher work, and that I should look more often upon Christ, and God, and heaven* than upon my own heart.1 So Richard Baxter; but Cassian« prepared to recognize the value for the contemplative offorgetting past sin, urges his less advanced ascetics to this engrossing scrutiny of the self For page after page he is examiriing human unworthiness. I quote one chapter out omany: It is impossible for a man to win a triumph over any kind of passion» unless he has first clearly understood that he cannot possibly gain the victory in the struggle with it by his own strength and eflbrts, although in order that he may be rendered pure he must night and day persist in the utmost care and watchfulness. And even when he feels that he has gotridof this fault, he should still search the inmost recesses ofhis heart with the same purpose, and single out the worst fault which he can see among those still there, and bring all the forces of the spirit3 to bear against it in particular, and as by always overcoming the stronger 1

Coll. xxm. 6. i ; c£, xxm. 17-19; Inst, xa. 15. 1. ' Baxter's Autobiography (EvetyrnanecL), p. »13, 3 Gibson translates 'Spirit' with a capita] S, but there is no indication that Cassian here refers to the Holy Spirit, CTC

<J7

7

JOHN CASSIAN

passions, he will gain a quick and easy victory over the rest, because by a course of triumphs the soul is made more vigorous, and the fact that the next conflict is with weaker passion ensures him a readier success in the struggle.*..1 We observe that grace is presupposed: and even though later thought is inclined to advocate attack upon the sins easier to defeat, thus building the powers of the will to face more pressing temptations« there is sense in the injunction not to squander the moral resources in a vague diffusion of effort but to concentrate upon one particular sin. Just as virtue forms a unity—Evagrius had compared it to the light of the sun streaming through different 1 windows of a room —sins, distinct in ascetical theory» so hang together that victory against one temptation» however trivial, will surely augment the power of the will to meet all temptations. But the unlovely investigation of sin, combined with an attention, reiterated ad nauseam, to the manward aspect of the moral advance, may persuade monks subconsciously to trust rather in their own efforts» in the accuracy of self�examination and the mastery over isolated sins, than in the grace of God. He has even considered from its manward side the preliminary assertion of the need for co�operating grace; for he has not urged trust in grace so much as a human awareness of its necessity. A spiritual adviser of a later age, while giving similar practical advice to attack a particular sin, would mainly intend to turn his penitent towards grace. Cassian does nothing of the kind» Sometimes he pushes his pupils towards introspection rather than the contemplation of God* To contemplatives he could later write that the recollection of evil is dangerous, 'for a man is sure to be suffocated by the pestilential smells of the sewer as long as he chooses to stand over it or to stir its 3 filth'. Yet for those in the ' actual 'life he is almost guilty himself of stirring the filth. No doubt he would answer these charges by affirming that sdf�exaniination plays a beneficial part in any moral advance : that reliance upon grace must be assumed in men who would never have professed themselves monks if they had not already accepted the power of God as the road to perfection: that ascetical theology, 4

Coll. v, 14. 2�3 (Gibson). CoU xx. το.

98

Cap* Prae. 08 in PC xt. 1252.

ΊΚΕ CONQUEST OP SIN

dealing ex hypothesi with human methods of moral progress, must make the abstraction from grace before it can operate : that the training of contemplatives demands an eradication of the sinful passions and the cultivation of virtue in order that prayer may not be the woolly comfort of the spiritual hedonist but the act of one whose will is wholly vowed to unity with the will of God ; just as Teresa, who purposed an exposition of prayer in The Way of Perfection, spent the first sixteen chapters in a discussion of mortification and the virtues. All this defence we may readily allow; though no one has suggested that self^xamination should mean an indefatigable use of pick and shovel to turn the soil of the heart in the hope of discovering the inconspicuous roots of some weed which the conscience has not exposed. But he does not confine lnrnself to ascetical theology. The Institutes and Conferences not only teach : they are also designed, with their appeal to the will and their directly personal exhortations, to perform the function of devotional addresses* Whereas a statement of moral theology may temporarily omit grace, a quickening homily may not. Without grace devotional addresses suffer disaster and end in verbiage* Thus Cassian has tried to combine two not easily compatible aims; with the consequent misfortune that the ascetical theology becomes suspect and the personal appeal loses its Chrisian balance. 7. THE M O T I V E OP THE LIFE OF VIRTUE

The historian of the Middle Ages expects with a Stoic resignation that his sources will deter him from vice and spur him to virtue by playing upon his self�interest. The miracles of the saints paint the natural or supernatural penalties of sin and the natural or supernatural rewards of ascetic sanctity. For the ascetic shares already in the life of heaven, has avoided the life of hell which permeates secular society« Cassian, while avoiding the infantile materialism of anthropomorphic hagiography and rarely envisaging a painful future after death, did not escape the classic appeal to selflessness from selfish motives. The true monk receives from continence pleasures more poignant than the sensations of sexual union; a freedom from worry and a comfortable delight in virtue; all the monasteries of the world instead of a single house; 99

7'*

JOHN CASSIAN

the service ofnoble scions instead of grudging slaves; honour from princes and veneration from the populace.1 This propaganda, surprising in its inconsistent worldliness, avoids the evocation of fear of hell* Cassian« whose books would lose popularity by his steady refusal to retail thaumaturgy and therefore would always be the food of a minority, probably assumed that the monk's habit obtained a likely though not inevitable passport to heaven, and therefore that appeal to fear would prove no propelling incitement to sanctity. But we may more accurately seek the origin of this omission in two doctrinal facets found in eastern tradition* Against Augustinian predestination he shows signs* perhaps from the Origenist trend towards a type of universalist theology, of emphasizing the benevolence more strongly than the justice of God* If man surfers for his sin, he brings judgement by an inexorable law: God in his unwearying goodness and unchanging nature barms no one. By falling away from the heights towards the depths we draw death to ourselves; the fall itself is death to the falling soul* Yet God trains the soul by allowing human failures and their dolorous consequences. The Origenist tradition differs from the Augustinian in considering punishment as primarily medicinal,3 in believing that God's judgement resembles the doctor's knife operating upon a gangrenous wound. Secondly* one side of the Clementine doctrine of disinterested love, ooMÎy difficult to reconcile with the appeal to self-interest and munuhatbg the contrast between Cassianic thought and the legalistic moralism of a Gregory of Tours» has survived in Conference xi. Three things, lie wrote, enable men to control and remedy their faults: (i) the fear of hell, or of the penalties of earthly laws; (ii) the hope of, and desire for, the kingdom of heaven; and (iii) a love of goodness and virtue in itself These three motives are not equally excellent, but correspond to different grades in the spiritual life, in which the third, the selfless motive, must be the highest aim of all who seek after God» The Christian is seeking to be united with God. 1

Coll. xxrr. 26. ' Coll. xxm. 9. 2. * Though Augustine occasionally speaks of God's penal action as medicinal; cf, Buraaby, Amor Dei, p* 211* 100

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God never acts from motives of fear or of hope, he creates and wills goodness because of the intrinsic value of goodness. In the same way we who aspire to the likeness of God must come to love God, not from fear of punishment nor from hope of reward, but for the sake of himself alone. We love God because he first loved us. We shall not then be able to climb to true perfection unless, as he first loved m for the sake of nothing but our salvation* we love him for the sake of nothing but his love alone. Therefore we must try with full dévotion to ascend from fear to hope, from hope to the love (caritas) of God and the love (amor) of the virtues themselves; so that as we move towards a stable desire for good itself, we may cleave to that good so far as lies within the power of human nature.1 One w h o does not sin because he is afraid of punishment, will return to his vomit whenever the fear of punishment is weakened or removed. The man w h o delights in goodness for its own sake can never relapse to desire again the sin which he has left. But there is a fear which is the simple companion of love, filial and not servile* Whoever then has become rooted in his perfect charity must climb by a loftier step to that still higher fear which is not begotten by dread of punishment or desire of reward, but by the fulness of love. This is the love in which with affectionate anxiety a son reveres a most indulgent hither, a brother his brother, a friend his friend, a wife her husband—where there is no fear of blows or quarrelling, but rather of some little flaw in love: and there is in every action and even word an effort of earnest affection to prevent the fervour of that love from cooling even a little*.*. If a man fears the Lord in this way, it is certain that his perfection lacks nothing... .God urges us to pass from fear of punishment to the fullest liberty of love and to the confidence of the friends and sous of God,* W e observe that like Augustine he did not distinguish the fear of offending God because sin might bring separation« from the fear of offending God because by sin his love would be hurt» 1

* Coli. χι. 13. r�j.

Coll. XL 7. 6* 101

JOHN CASSIAN

This is the full tradition of Alexandria*1 Here is the conviction that the soul must love and follow God for his own sake and not in the hope of personal advantage or enjoyment, that ethics are an instrument to the love of God, not that God is an instrument to the good life. The faith that the contemplation of God is primary, a means towards nothing forther but an end in itself, is perhaps the most far-reaching contribution of Egypt to Christian thought; a conception that the Christian should not use God, subordinate God to his purposes or his comfort. * There are some*, wrote Gregory the Great, *who to enjoy God use this world as stewards; and there are some who to enjoy this world use God as a temporary aid.** Love must be disinterested, not in theQuietist sense which we must beware of reading into the Origenists, but in the sense that God is primarily loved in his eternal being, not because he brings material comforts or spiritual ecstasies. But this doctrine is not easy to reconcile with Cassian's practical appeals to ascetic self-interest. 8. T H E V I R T U E S

We must now discover the virtues of the present life, examine the solid furniture of the room which has been emptied of junk. First, the word 'saint* is not a synonym of'ascetic*, as we have already seen. Asceticism is an instrument towards perfection. Secondly, a saint is not recognized by his miracles. Cassian pursued the intention avowed in the preface to the Institutes of avoiding miracle stories as contributing nothing to spiritual instruction*3 When Paphnutius went into the desert where there was neither food nor water, it was rumoured that the angels ministered to him. Sulpicius Severus would have stated the angels as a fact and later hagiographers would have supplied eye-witnesses ; Cassian contented hirnselfwith the cautious * it was belie ved that the angels came*.4 It is true that he relates various miracles in Conference xv, miracles like the resurrection by Macarius of an ancient and embalmed Egyptian, sufficient to satisfy the most 1

CI HMi (PL xxt, }o&); Clement, Strom. It, ». 39-40; and Völker» pp, 147-8, * Moralia u. 15. 3 Cf. Colt. xvm. I. Miracles provide "lnutilem ac supervacuam admirationcm\ C£ HM vm. 15, Preuschfn» p. 37. ι Colt. m. 1. 3. 102

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avid reader. But the whole Conference is designed to discourage his monks from admiring a man because he is a wonder-worker* Satan can work miracles. Perfection rather consists in virtue, and the greatest miracle is in the expulsion of evil from the soul.1 if we follow traditional ascetical thought we turn to ask what virtues are particularly contained in virtue. Cassian gives Httle answer except the platitudinous thought that virtue consists in not committing sin. It would be attractive to suggest that he does not purpose negation, just as theologians intend positive assertion in discussing the ' sinlessness * of Christ* But the Evagrian background has driven him to think almost entirely in terms of sin. In the Conferences and Institutes we are given exhaustive and elaborate lists of sins; but the lists of virtues are sadly short and nominal by comparison. Where he thinks of virtue, he normally treats it as the opposite or negative side of vice : chastity means not fornicating, patience not being angry» humility not being proud, temperance not being gluttonous* But virtue to later Christian thought since Gregory the Great has possessed a constructive reality. For Cassian charity, the obverse of purity of heart, was the transcendent virtue in which all individual virtues were absorbed.1 Perhaps for that reason he was uninterested in the discussion ofvirtues found in later moralists. The cynic, wondering whether this was a trivial or serious defect in his work, could suggest that the distinctions of moral theology, not always real in practical life and sometimes turning the unwise soul towards interest in itself, may well be omitted ; or that in feet little has been lost because he compensates for the lacuna m other ways. Although he only incidentally mentions the four cardinal virtues of the ancient heathen, prudence maybe discerned in his emphasis on discretion; fortitude in his incitements to the fight;temperancein his advocacy of ascetic practices ; justice in his urge towards perfection* Humility and patience, which he habitually coupled, possess something of a positive reality.5 To Cassian we owe the marks of an humble man,4 a description made famous by Benedict in his 1

CoU. xv. i-ç; cf. Chrysostom» Horn, in Matth. 32. 11. . * Mirsili, Cassiano ed Evagrio, p. r8. 1 CoU. xvm. 1 j . a; cf. Lactantuis» Instit. v. 7. 1 Inst. iv. 39', cf. xn. 27. s-ö. 103

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well-known chapter (vn) on the degrees of humility* Benedict incorporated the degrees pardy verbatim, expanded them, though in a different order, and—typically—placed the source of huinility, reverence of God, at the beginning and the exterior attitude of downcast eyes at the end. Charity engulfs the other virtues in its supreme embrace, transforming the soul into the image and likeness of God—nihil praeponendum est caritath for charity towards God is perfect contemplation» And since Caritas Dei in Cassian usually means the love of man towards God (Evagrius's agape, and Nygren*s eros) we must ask how charity affects the neighbours, how the monk should treat his brethren and the external world. Common opinion reproaches monasticism that the enclosed search of the monk after his personal salvation precludes any concrete expression of the charity so loftily professed. Is the aim of union with God through purity of heart and contemplation incompatible with the practical service of mankind ? For the author of the Conferences the outside world seems to exist only as a storehouse of parables and illustrations. Intending to instruct monks he excluded the secular from his literary consciousness* But we possess a portrait of the world written by a younger monk who» when Cassian was publishing at Marseilles, was probably occupying a reaching post at nearby Lérins and would later discourse at Marseilles 'on the government of God*» Salvian desired to propagate his theory that God was chastening the Romans because they sinned more grievously than the Germans and therefore he inevitably saw the outside world through partial and gloomy spectacles. But when we have subtracted the rhetoric, we still find the monks of Marseilles believing that the populace "was polluting its life by pomerastic theatres and sanguinary games: that cities were sewers of lust and fornication: that the wealthy added house to house and field to field, avoiding the taxes and oppressing the poor: that the merchants cheated and lied* the soldiers stole, the officials slandered : that with few exceptions the holy congregation of Christ's Church was a * cesspool of vice' :τ and that the whole Roman people was plunging down the 1

De Gab. m. 44, The full double standard is recognized by Cassian in CotL xxi. 5 ; cf. Kirtt» The Vision of God, pp. 255, 525�ΰ. 104

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Gadarene slope. It is possible that one who had lived in Rome and Constantinople would have known better than to take this literally. But if this was the outlook of a Massilian monk, it seems useless to ask Cassian s opinion on the secular world or even whether he taught the much-criticized double standard of morality. He betrays scarcely a sign of awareness that there could be any other standard than the monastic* Not only the modern instinct inquires whether brotherly love should have driven the better men to support the collapsing bulwarks of society; contemporaries, pagans like Volustanus1 who beUeved the otherworldly idealism of Christianity to be an influence weakening society, or churchmen like Vigilantius who saw in monachism only a tx>wardly desertion, were asking similar questions. But the preachment of Salvian allows the guess that the monks of Marseilles did not think existing society worth the saving. Cassian commended the brotherly action—frequent almsgiving; the care of the sick; the strange altruism of Archebius who ofiered and abandoned his hut to any chance visitor; the management by Macarius of a charitable guest-house in Alexandrin/ an action performed in the world by an ascetic but 'no less cornmendable than the desire of others for solitude*. Yet because the morality acts as an instrument to the contemplation of God, he invariably treats good deeds not as the flowing outcome of the love of God but as a useful and quasi-optional aid in the struggle for personal perfection. Such actions develop contemplation, are never visualized as its fruition. For practical works» he thought, are temporary and must in heaven vanish* As Mary rather than Martha chose the better part, we cannot compare the common acts of self-sacrifice with quiet meditation lying at the feet of the Lord. Works of mercy harmonize uneasily with his contemplative ideal The lowly necessities of the human body which force these withdrawals from God and invite good works will in heaven disappear: but until that beatitude they hinder continuous contemplation* Who can with tranquil mind gaze upon the glorious majesty of God while engaged in works of charity? Who can contemplate the * Augustin?, Ep, CXXXVL a,

* Inst. v. 37; Colt. xiv. 4. 105

JOHN CASSIAN

immeasurable blessedness of heaven at that very moment when he is ministering alms to the poor, when lie is wclœmîng visitors with gracious hospitality» when he is concerned with caring for the needs of his brethren? Who can keep his heart aloft above the defilement of earthly existence and consider ihe world to come, while he is troubled by the vexations and cares of everyday Hfe? * The incitement therefore to tend widows or convert the heathen derives from the devil who wishes to deprive the monk of the opportunity for prayer. A barber used to shave his customers for 3*/. each, a very low charge, and at the end of the day, after having paid for his meals, he had gained ioo pence» Then he heard that in a neighbouring city the regular charge for a shave was a whole solidus. He packed his goods, though the cost of moving used up all the money he had saved, and set up his business in this city where* on the first day, he received a quantity oÎsolidi. He went off in delight to buy his dinner, and found at the butcher s shop that a httle piece of meat cost all the solidi he possessed; and at the end of the day he was left with not one penny profit. So in the spiritual life there are large 'profits1 to be acquired in the conversion of the heathen : but since the perils to onefs soul cancel the profits, it is better to be content with the quiet life of contemplation where the soul is less exposed and jeopardized because it is removed from the worries and temptations of the secular world* Guided by the same principles Abbot Apollos, when asked by his brother to rescue an ox bogged in a swamp* answered that he could provide no help because he was dead—dead to the secular world*1 In essence this is the doctrine ofthe hermit of Sinai, that God may only be truly contemplated apart from men, that an encounter with men must draw the soul from the company of angels: *My children, if you would be saved* flee from mankind/ 3 If one believes that ceaseless worship is the highest aim of men and that compatiionship forbids worship, the practice of brotherly love and 1

Colt. xxm. 3. i. * Coll. xxrr. 13; ibid. o. The Egyptians agreed both in advocating brotherly action »rid in viewing « as an exercise in ascesis. Cf. the illustrations of Heussi, pp. 3$4~6, 3

Moschus, Pratum Spirituaie n o . TOO

THE CONQUEST OF SIN

of the social virtues can enter life only as temporary exercises in fostering spirituality. The Egyptian initiative which had driven the first hermits into complete solitude had lost ground under the experience that in fact this isolation developed more problems than it solved, but it remains in Cassianic thought and is destined to a long history. The Russian priest of the nineteenth century who tried to deter the wandering pilgrim by the argument 'God did not create man to think of himself only, but that men should help each other along the path to salvation \ received an Egyptian reply as the pilgrim went on his way: 'The very saints took steps to guard themselves from the dangers of trungling with people/ * Yet a coenobium needs mutual love and communal virtue* Conference xvi onfriendship*in which the Ciceronian reminiscence is confined to the tide and two or three paragraphs, identifies the love of the brethren with the love of God, love between the perfect with God himself* But the discussion turns or deteriorates slowly and willingly into an advisory and useful debate upon the acquisition of peace in a community by the renunciation of selfwill: and love of the neighbour has been restricted once again to a spiritual exercise. It is not surprising that throughout his books he quoted a familiar text not once, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself** We have travelled far from the New Testament. The c actual ' life aims, in Cassian as in Evagrius« at acquiring a state of purity of heart or apathy which is the reverse side or condition of the charity which is itself the condition of contemplation» To attain purity of heart the passions must be quashed and expelled from the soul; and therefore the essence of the actual life consists in the fight of the higher self against the lower selfl of the spirit against the flesh. He normally conceived the fight as a battle against the pressing*, insidious powers of evil, rarely as a battle for the good» 'The assaulting sins are much more numerous than the defending virtues \ a which, with the exception of humility and its sister patience, lack solidity in his mind and are swallowed in the higher virtue of charity conceived in terms of contemplation, 1 1

The Way of a Pilgrim {tt. French), S.P.C.K. (1941). pp. 67-8Inst, va. 15. IO7

JOHN CASSIAN

as Caritas Od* the urge towards God, rather than in terms of brotherly love* The goodwill shown towards the neighbour is included in this doctrinal frame more as a convenient exercise in self-renunciation and therefore as a useful lever in breaking the attack of the passions« If we isolate the system we sense that something in the Gospel has been twisted* The zeal for God, the desire for perfection, the bearing of the cross* the denial of the self— these elements of the Gospel force themselves into almost every page* What we so far miss may be summarized in the word grace. Hitherto he has treated eveiything* even the help of God, from the standpoint of effort by the soul* It is time to discover whether grace prevents and accompanies the whole moral progress towards purity or whether this emphasis upon the human will ends in the slough of Pelagianism*

TO8

CHAPTER IV

GRACE 1. SAINT AUGUSTINE

The problem of grace presented itself to the ascetic movement in a particular form. The traditions of the desert fathers stressed the practices of mortification undertaken in order that the passions might be cut away from the soul, which could then rise to God buoyed up by grace. The eastern theology of grace was hazy and not always logical: but from the earliest period of monachism grace and free will tended to be conceived, not as contemporaneous and coinherent, but as successive. First cut away the passions, then grace will be enabled to flow. The idea, of which traces may be found in Origen,1 is present in the Life ofAntony* in Chrysostom*3 in the Macarian homilies,4 and is implicit in all the eastern ascetic documents of the period« Eut a conflicting opinion may be found among the eastern sources, in particular when discussing the sin of pride« This successive view of free will and grace manifesdy leads to pride in the human efforts of the successful ascetic. Therefore the cure of pride consists in placing the whole responsibility for spiritual advance upon God's grace. Hence the ascetic writers stress the absolute dependence upon God by placing an almost Augustinian emphasis upon grace whenever they deal with the subject of pride. They were not interested in theories and doctrines of grace and free will, but only with the practical and moral consequences, and thus did not observe the inconsistency. This was not Pelagian, since all agreed upon the paramount necessity of grace for salvation. But neither was it logical* 1

Völker, pp, 38-^43. Many writers» in particular Jerome, have accused Origen of Pelagiarrism» but this view cannot be sustained. Yet Völker shows that grace to Origen meant chiefly gratia subsequent * Vita Antonti xx. 3 Sec the numerous references cited by Hoch in Lehre des Johannes Cassianus von Natur und Gnade, « m* 4, xn. ιό, XDL 6, XLVL 3, et passim: cf. csp. xxxva. 10: ή ofo τιλβσι� oupylcc του nweuuomoç Iv τφ ββλήµατι TOO ανθρώπου κεΐτοχ Ci the Montanist theory illustrated by Tertullian, De Exhort. Cast. 10; 'paramenia cam« spjrituui adquires/ 109

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Augustine on the other band asserted dogmatically that in teaching grace free will must never be minimized, that the two must be accepted together; and against the Pelagians his enunciation of the absolute dependence of the soul upon God left nothing to be desired. But since his whole doctrine was vitiated by the commonly held conception of grace as a rigid irresistible force from the cUvine omnipotence» many theologians failed to see how a true association of grace and free will was possible, Augustine's doctrine is well known and may be briefly summarized: original sin, transmitted concupiscence resulting from the Fall» has changed the human race into a *lump of damnation , If the justice of God means anything» this sinfulness demands and should receive the severest punishment; all humanity ought* rightly» to be consigned to hell for eternity. But his divine mercy is such that from the lump he selects souls—not a few, but in large numbers though not so large as the damned 1 —whom, without taking into account their future merits, he predestines to salvation. His grace converts them* leads and controls them throughout their fife and brings them to the eternal kingdom» though there are some souls whom after their first conversion he allows to fall back into the lump in order to demonstrate his justice. Grace begins» accompanies, ends, the process of salvation: and grace is * irresistible \ by which he meant that as grace releases the will from the bondage of sin and bestows upon it the true freedom to do good» the will can have no wish to turn again to evil. Some therefore are from all eternity predestined to life* others to damnation. And when human reason asks why this man has received the grace of perseverance when that man has not» we can only answer that God's providence is inscrutable* and quote St Paul: Ό the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God 1 how unsearchable are his judgments* and his ways past finding out ! (Rom. xi. 33.) This conviction, the basis of which can be seen from an early period in Augustine's hfe. was sharpened and defined by the Pelagian controversy* If two points are assumed as a basis: (i) that man is absolutely dependent upon God, (ii) that grace is a dominating force of irresistible omnipotence ; and if logic works upon 1

De Corr. et Grat. 28. HO

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these premises with the aim of accounting for human experience that many do not come to the knowledge of God, no other conclusions appear possible. Every age in which this coherent and relentless doctrine has been proclaimed has found sincere spirits to protest. Those who have fully understood it have revolted against the inhuman cruelty postulated of a God who selects haphazardly when his omnipotence could save all: and the loftier rebels have been backed by an untheological Christian instinct that the doctrine laid itself open to sinister misconceptions. Predestination and irresistible grace appeared to undermine all ethical effort, and nullify any moral purpose in life* Why should any man try to do God's will ? Is there no such thing as free will, or does man bow down before Fate as the Manichaeans teach? Why should not the soul sin with impunity? For what purpose is there preaching or correction of faults ? All arc predestined, no one need work for salvation. This was the natural reaction to Augustinian rigour. We may anticipate the course of events by mentioning a scurrilous document published in Gaul by the future saint Vincent, monk of Latins» portraying as the teaching of Augustine all the most unpleasant deductions which could be drawn from the doctrines in question« Augustine is accused of teaching that: God has created the greater part of the human race for eternal damnation* God is the author of our sins. Adulteries* incests and murders happen because God decreed them. Those feithful and holy men who fall* seem to do it by their own fault; but in reality God has secretly removed their will to good* The majority of Christians cannot obtain perseverance even if they pray for it, because the predestination of God is immutable. Repentance is useless for one predestined to death. When most Christians pray 'Thy will be done', they are praying for their own destruction, since this is the will of God.1 1

Ohjectiones Vituentianae in PL u. 177-86. Some of the older historians, e.g. Baronius ad ann. 41}, tried tw show that the author of these scurriÜtics was not the saint of Lérins, but is possibly to be identified with the Vincent mentioned III

JOHN CASSIAN

When these and similar opinions of Augustinian theology could be entertained, strenuous opposition was certain. Moreover predestination appeared to the anti-Augustinian theologians a novel doctrine. It had never been preached; therefore despite the reputation of its progenitor, it was contrary to the tradition of the Church. The anti-Augustinians regarded themselves as the conservativerepresentativesof traditional Christian theology against dangerous innovation* And it was not surprising that this opposition should be based upon the ascetics, in whose lives work for salvation in the way of mortification was so prominent, in the west there was one man who could speak as the representative of tradition, who had already published works upon the eastern ascetical doctrine* Cassian became the leader of the opposing party, who thus became known to Augustine and his disciples as Massilians, men of Marseilles. The Massilian party included, not only the monks of St Victor and Lérins, but several of the high ecclesiastics of Provence. 2. THE C O N T R O V E R S Y 1

The controversy was occasioned by the publication of a book by Augustine intended to prevent it* The anti-Pelagian writings caused something of a stir in Africa* Augustine, after dealing with the desires of a puzzled friend to stress free will at conversion, was summoned to explain his meaning to the inmates of a monastery at Susa (Hadrumetum), who have the distinction of being the first ascetics to draw the joyful conclusion that they need no longer work for their salvation*1 To Susa he addressed two treatises, not so much in explanation as in reiteration ofhis main thesis: only the second, published in 427» the book On Rebuke ana Grace, need concern us here* A copy was transmitted to southern Gaul, where it drew a hurricane of protest from the ascetic communities, in Gennadius LXXXI. But not only does the Commonitory show that St Vincent attacked Augustine vigorously: the GbjecHones were compared with the Cotnmonitory by H. Koch {'Vincenz von Lerins und Gennadius1 in Texte und Untersuchungen xxxi (1907) 2), who showed that so far as the evidence goes the two styles exactly correspond* Cf. Amann, in DTC s.v, Scmipclagicns. J The clearest guide to the history of the controversy is still Duchesne* Hist. Ane. m [1910)* pp. 273iE See also E. Amann in DTC xrv {1919), 1796-650. 4 The letters to and from the monks of Susa are Augustine, Epp. ccxrv-ccxvi. 112

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particularly at Marseilles and Lérins, who had already become uneasy through the rumours and hints and partial statements of Augustinianism which had reached them»1 but had been humble enough until that moment to blame their own lack of understanding. The theological school which gathered round Cassian and included St Vincent of Lérins has been known since the early seventeenth century by the dubious epithet of semi-Pelagian,3 The Massilians had no association with the Pelagians: and because they were primarily negative, in that their fundamental tenet and bond of union consisted of opposition to doctrinal innovation, a more accurate term which of recent years has been winning favour is Canti-Augustinian\3 Yet within the party we may distinguish two types: those like Vincent who were merely conservative, frightened of definition and having no constructive theory to offer, and those hke Cassian who felt it necessary to provide an alternative theology of grace as a counter to Augustinianism, Many who held vague views on grace were swung over by the circulation of the treatise On Rebuke and Grace to support positive theories of grace and free will because they shuddered before the only apparent alternative.4 This was no mere clique of heresy, but a body containing leading bishops and priests and monks of Provence, united in the righteous conviction that they were representing the true Christian tradition. The controversy is exceptional among the doctrinal quarrels of the fourth and fifth centuries in the respect with which each side treated the other* The scmi-Pclagians professed homage to Augustine and all his works except in the matter of predt^tination and irresistible grace,5 and they would turn to Augustine's earlier 1

Id. Ep. caccv. 2. * The origin of the term is traced by Amann in DTC xrv (1939), 179Ö. $ Cf. Harnack, History of Dogma (ET) ν, p. 24.3 η. 3: 'Semi�Pelagiarusrn is a malicious heretical term. The literary leaders of this doctrine were in no respect influenced by Pclagius, nor did they learn anything from him ; on the contrary they take their stand on doctrines of Augustine, and it is impossible to understand them apart from his teaching, Seroi�Pclagiaiusm is popular Catholicism made more definite and [ymfi�mt.fi by Augustine's doctrines/ 1 Augustine, Ep. cexxv. 6. * Prosper ap. Augustine, Ep. cexxv. 3; Hilary ap. Augustine, Ep, ccxxvi. 9: sc dicant tuam sanctitatem hoc excepto in factis et dictis omnibus admiratt. eje

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works for a proof of their contentions. The Gallic Atigustinians, led by Prosper, were forced by their own lack of numbers and prestige to treat the weighty reputation of their opponents with a certain reverence. The semi-Pelagians are described, in the letters sent from Gaul to Augustine, as 'distinguished both in merits and honour'. 1 Prosper confessed that 'they are far superior to our party in the merits of their hfe, and some of them have lately been raised to the episcopate*, referring perhaps to Helladius of Axles and probably his own bishop Vencrius of Marseilles. Occasionally when he was facing an anonymous opponent, Prosper was able to descend to the normal standard of ecclesiastical abuse prevalent at the time; in the two epigrams written against some anonymous detractor of Augustine, he calls his adversary 'wolf*, 'miserable little snake*, and ' viper\* (Some have suggested that this anonymous opponent was Cassian hhriself: but Cassian did not publish anonymously, and it is unlikely that Prosper would thus abuse a man whom at other times he mentions with respect.) It is a significant indication of the general reverence felt for Cassian by his opponents, that even though he held no bishopric he was not attacked by name. He is clearly indicted in references to the monks of Marseilles: but when Prosper launched a direct attack upon the Conferences and their author in his Contra CoUatotenij he never addressed him by name, but apostrophized rum as * Catholic doctor ' A There could be no more cogent evidence of the prestige of the foreign ascetic than this tribute by a vehement opponent Early in *po Helladius (or possibly Euladius) ofAries announced his intention of demanding from St Augustine an explanation of the work On Rebuke and Grace* Prosper wrote to Augustine to explain the Massilian doctrines: the party in Gaul is headed by many of the servants of Christ [the monks) in Marseilles» who believe that the Augustinian doctrines are an innovation contrary 1

Augustine, Ep. cexxv. a, 9* ccxxvr. 9. PL 11. 140, * Contra CoU. n. $. * Augustine, Ep, ccxxv. 9; for these letters c£. Trxcront. History of Dogmas (ET) m. pp. 269IT.; Wörter» pp, 4fr.; Amann in DTCxy (1930). 181 iff. In Augustine, Ep. cexxy. 9, I read 'Helkdium* instead of 'Huarium', but 'Euladium' is also possible. For a justification xeJTS XL« (194.5), PP^ 300-5, 1

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to the opinion of the fathers and the common feeling of the Church. The principal article in their creed is the belief that Christ died for all men without exception, so that they reject the idea that God has only elected some to salvation and has predestined others to eternal damnation. When Prosper has quoted to them St Paul's teaching on predestination, they have replied that the Scripture has never been understood in that sense. This interpretation takes away from the fallen any desire for recovery, it brings half-heartedness, tepor* The moral struggle is valueless if the rejected cannot enter however hard they try, and the elect cannot fall by any slackness or negligence. Hence they fear to ascribe the merits of the saints to the work of God. But in rejecting the teaching of Augustine there are some among them who approach the Pelagian doctrine. These believe that men can attain grace of their own natural powers by asking, seeking, knocking (though these natural powers are the gift of God) and that in the process of salvation the human will acts before the grace of God is given. They speak indeed of 1 initial grace*: but this proves only to be natural law, Scripture, the preaching of the Gospel—external aids to salvation and not interior grace within the heart. Therefore Prosper urged Augustine to expose the danger of their teaching and overcome them by an authority which his supporters in Gaul did not possess. We shall see how reminiscent of Cassian is the anti-Augustinianism described by Prosper in this letter. The refusal to ascribe the merits of the saints to the power of God; the doctrine that grace is given to him that asks, seeks, knocks; the question of the natural powers of the will; the proclamation that Christ has died for all men—all these points are made in Conference xm in which Cassian unfolds his own theory of grace. Above all we may see the fears of the ascetic prominent in the single word tepor. But Prosper may not have seen Conference xm, at this time, perhaps, in process of publication* He may have heard Cassian preach upon the subject, or been present at a controversial discussion in Marseilles.1 ' The points are made in Colt. xm. 7. 1,9. 1, la. 1—5. But if Prosper had had the document before him, more verbal sirnikrîties would occur. Similar doctrines arc not stated in similar words. Further, Cassian, though in 9. 2 he quotes Rom. "S

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Augustine recognized that in the Massilians he was dealing with brothers, not with Pelagian heretics,1 but in the treatise with which he replied to Prosper he did not abate by one iota the rigour offns logic* In 428 Cassian provided a coherent alternative to rtfedestination by the circulation of Conference xm, and when Augustine died on 28 August 430 in the besieged city of Hippo» the semi-Pelagians seemed to be left in possession of the held* For the moment it will suffice to describe Cassian*s doctrine as allowing that in certain souls, like the penitent thief, the first tiny turning of the will towards God is made by free choice, although in other souls the grace of God achieves even this as all else in the process of salvation. He minimized this small allowance of free will by certain safeguards. If grace and free will are assumed to be exclusive a more reduced part for free will without falling into Augustinianism. can scarcely be imagined. But over this question of the 'origin of the good will' the controversy proceeded with increasing acrimony. Prosper, in spite of the weakness of his ecclesiastical platform, inherited the leadership of the Augustinian patty« A clear and cogent writer» he was capable of compromise and, under pressure, of refraining from pushing his arguments to the relentless extremes ofhis master. But in his Letter to Rufinus and the Poem on the Graceless, two of his earlier works, Augustinianism is maintained without modification: in the Letter he ventured an oblique and cautious attack upon Cassian himself1 Throughout, his two ix. 16, does not concern himself with the scriptural interpretation of the passage on predestination: nor does he deal with the question of tepor in Coll. xm. Moreover the teaching represented hy Prospcr's letter is far more Pelagian and much less subdc than the doctrine oiCott. xm. In the letter the first stage towards God k always the action of the human will: in Cassian the human WÎQ Only takes this step sometimes. The letter also deals with subjects which Coll. xni does not touch» e.g. the 'hypothetical merits' of unbaptized infants. Prosper therefore U possibly not referring directly to CoU. xm. The accepted chronology places the publication of Coli, xm in 426, before the controversy broke out* I regard this dating as erroneous and consider Coll. xn to have been a. wort evoked by the controversy. See chronology in Appendix A. 1 De praed, sand, 2. The De praedestinatUme sanctorum and the De dono pefseverantiae, though frequently printed separately, formed in reality one treatise. * Ep. ad Ruf. rv: Voient« in sua iwtitia magis quam in Dei gratia gloriari, moleste ferunr quod hi« quae adversum exttlknrissimae aucroriucis virum, inter HO

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sharpest weapons were the prestige of Augustine and the wholly unjust charge that the new heresy was a revival of Pelagianism. The war proceeded by pamphlet and counter-pamphlet; and the other side was not inactive. An anonymous semi-Pelagian published an open attack on Augustine« to which Prosper replied with abusive and epigrammatic verse. Two priests of Genoa sent extracts from Augustine's last treatise on grace and demanded an explanation. In Provence some writers whom Prosper calls Galli published a book of those propositions by Augustine which they found inadmissible; and under the leadership of Vincent himself the already noted ' Objectionsy were put out, intended to portray Augustinianism in a most unfavourable light by setting out as the actual teaching of Augustine those deductions which a normal man might draw from his extreme conclusions,1 Prosper, harassed by the necessity of answering these theological pamphlets, began to shift his ground away from rigid Augustinianism* while he steadfasdy continued to maintain that Cassian and his followers were involved in heresy. Since the death of Augustine, his only hope of external aid against the semi-Pelagian majority lay in the see of Rome« In his writings, he had from time to time appealed to the past judgements of Rome on the Pelagians1 : and he now determined, with his friend and supporter Hilary, to journey to Rome itself in order to bring back a decree against Cassian and the Massilians. Nothing less than a personal journey could achieve his purpose. For ecclesiastical politics at Rome did not promise wellforthe Augustinian mult» coUatlones asscrucxc, resùtimus.* Among the statements to which he icpbcs are (i) the text Matth. τά. iS, Ep. v, used by Cassian in Coll xul. 7. 3 and IO. 3, though in the second case supplemented by the text John vi. 44 which Prosper himself uses in refutation; (ii) Ep. xm, the universalist exegesis of I Tim. ii. 4 which occurs, e.g. κ in CoU. xm. 7. 1 ; (iii) Ep. vi. the case of Cornelius the centurion in Acts; cf. Coll. xm. i$. 2. 1 Prosper1* replies, ' Pro Auguscmo rcsponsiones ad excepta quae dc Genuensi dvitatc missa sunt', "Pro AugusOno respOnsionE» ad capitula obketionum vincentdanarum1» 'Pro Augustine rcsponsiones ad capitula obiectionum Gal� lorum', are given in PL u. 155�202. * E.g. Ep. ad Ruf. m; Carmen de Ingratîs, 11, 39-43 : 1 Pcstem subeuntem prima recidit Sedcs Roma Petri : quae pastonlis honoris Facta caput mundo, quidquid non possidet: armis, Religioue tenet*' 117

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cause. Pope Celestine had indeed, some three years before, administered a rebuke to the Gallic bishops of the provinces of Narbonne and Vienne in the decree Caperetnus quidem of 428, in which he inveighed ittter alia against the custom of folfilling the literal commands of Scripture by officiating in church in a cloak and girdle»1 the monastic habit which was passing into the practice of southern Gaul. But at present Cassian was upon the best of terms with the Roman see. He had lived in Rome for a time, perhaps had been ordained there to the priesthood» and was a friend of Leo, the new archdeacon. His reputation at the papal court was such that when in 429-30 Rome wished for a theological champion to enunciate western orthodoxy against Nestorianism, Leo applied, not to the dying Augustine blockaded in Hippo, but to Cassian, the acknowledged leader of western asceticism, who understood the Greek language and Greek theological politics. Duchesne calls him at this time 'the oracle of western theology \* It was not therefore likely that Prosper would secure a decree from the Pope directed against the recognized defender of Latin orthodoxy« And so it proved* Prosper and Hilary journeyed to Rome in 431 and were granted a decree; but its statements were so indefinite and so much a compromise that it was an almost worthless weapon in the fight for Augustinianism. Pope Celestine addressed the decree Apostolid verba of 15 May 4J1 to the bishops of Gaul and especially to Cassian's bishop Venerius of Marseilles, who had succeeded Proculus about 428 and who had been associated with a monastery in that city* The evidence of a contemporary inscription from Narbonne permits the conjecture that Venerius had been a pupil of Cassian: certainly he was not the man to inaugurate measures for the suppression of the guide and leader of the ascetic movement*3 In his letter Celestine praised Prosper and Hilary for their devotion in the service of God: he complained to the Gillie bishops that he had been informed of disturbances raised in the Church by * certain 1

Celestine, Ep. rv. 2. De Inc. pracf; Duchesne m, p. 280. 3 Carp, Inset. Lot. xu, 5336, and Lc Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule π, p. 617. It runs; 'rustjeus episcopus,, .cpiscopi Veneria sochis m monasterio, compresbyter ecclesiae Massiliensis... ' and records a work of building in 445 by Rusticus of Narbonne. 1

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priests'* and urged them to impress upon these subordinates the duty of learning before they taught : he stated that there must be no novelty in the teaching of the Church« and declared that the holy Augustine had always been in communion with the apostolic see and that no breath ofsuspicion was attached to his name* Celestine would go so tar but no further: there is no approval of the Augustinian doctrines, not even a direct condemnation cither of semiPelagianism or of any of its leaders. There is nothing in the approval of Augustine which Cassian could not have supported: and there is only a veiled hint to Venerius that it would be politic to prevent Cassian from further public writing on controversial subjects. Finally, there is a gentle touch of irony, whether intentional or not, in the reason adduced for the praise of Augustine— *the holiness ofhis life and meritsV With this ambiguous decree, Prosper and Hilary must be content* Prosper conjured its aid in Gaul and quoted the passage on Augustine in the Contra CoUatoremmt* Vincent on the other side likewise welcomed it, claiming that the declaration against novel teaching was directed against Augustine instead of Cassian, and expanding the appeal to conservative tradition into the famous anti-Augustinian canon quod ubiquet quod semper, quod ab omnibus* But although the decree was susceptible of these opposite interpretations, the wisdom of Roman diplomacy soon became apparent» Neither side could force their point of view into the official theology of the western church: Prosper began to abandon the campaign in favour of Augustinianism in order to devote himself to the simple cumulation of semi-Pelagian doctrine. In the Contra ColUtorem of432, making no attempt to explain or to teach predestination by irresistible grace, he confined himself to a fairly 1

Celestine, Ep. XXJ. 3. In PL L. 51& the original letter is followed by six columns of some other anti-Pelagian document which was certainly not -written by Celestine, Modem scholarship considers it to be the work of Prosper (Dom M Cappuyns in Reu, Bén. x u (1929), pp. 156-170); cf. Amann, 1830. 4 xxi. a. 3 Conti». χχχι�ΑΑΛίη. Recendy an anthology of Augustinian doctrine on the Trinity and Incarnation has been discovered under the name of St Vincent. The preface and the end prove that it could be Vincentian; and the preface speaks with admiration of Augustine. If Vincent is the author, his opposition was confined to the realm of grace. Cf. J, Lebreton in Recherches de science reUgieuses X3UE (1940}, pp. 3OS�9. TT9

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moderate opposition to the doubtful doctrine in Cassian of the origin of the good will» There can be httle doubt that when the danger of Augustinianism was averted, the more conservative members of the semi-Pelagian party would revert towards the indeterminate oudook of the Roman Church* The semi-Pelagian party therefore had achieved a partial victory; for a long period they were to remain unopposed. When Faustus, the abbot of Lérins in the middle of the fifth century, preached a semi-Pelagian doctrine less diplomatic than that of Cassian« no Gallic voice was raised in protest until many years had passed» 3. THE D O C T R I N E OF C A S S I A N

If Augustine had never written, had never promulgated his theories, we should expect to find Cassian expressing the doctrine of grace in the common manner of Egyptian and Syrian monasticism« We should look on the one hand to discover an inclination towards a successive view of free will and grace, a suggestion that the carnal desires must be mortified to break down those earthly barriers which hinder the entry of grace, a practical exhortation that asceticism is a means by which grace may flow more freely; and on the other hand we should expect a similarly practical emphasis on man s dependence upon grace whenever question is raised concerning certain vices, such as pride, the cure of which hangs upon the realization of dependence. Further, an ascetical theologian Uke any other thinker is bound to make an abstraction ofhis subject. Being concerned with human conquest of vice and progress in virtue, he is inclined to regard the spiritual life as a ladder up which the soul is climbing; and although a Rodriguez or a Jeremy Taylor is conscious that grace is accompanying every step, he normally makes his abstraction by assuming the concomitance of grace and concentrating his thought and his admonitions upon human capacities. The ascetical theologian is a practical schoolmaster in the way of spirituality ; and schoolmasters habitually over-emphasize one side of a question in order to drive home the point. The Arininian William Law, who by no means overthrew grace* could commit himself among the moral exhortations of the Serious Call to the statement that 120

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*our salvation depends upon the sincerity and perfection of our endcavour to obtain it*. Brémond remarked that none of these moralists intended to dispense with grace, that +they recognize that we cannot stand alone, but, when It comes to the point, they act as if they were alone, and as if success depended only on their efforts V If therefore Augustine had never generated an opposing theory of grace, there would probably be found, in a writer of the temperament and from the milieu of Cassian, these three practical and unsystematic ideas : (i) asceticism enables grace to flow by cutting obstacles from its path; (ii) if pride assails, the soul must realize that it depends upon God for advance in the spiritual lire; (iii) the grace of God is assumed, especially by an emphasis on prayer : but the study of ascesis naturally leads to stress upon the responsibihties of the human will. Let us therefore make an arbitrary isolation of the evidence* Conferences xm, with its attempt to enunciate a coherent theory of grace, is a Hvrede circonstance evoked by the arrival of the treatise On Rebuke and Grace in Gaul If at first this single Conference is left out of account, it should be possible to approach Cassian's original theology before he encountered Augustine and to discover whether the characteristics which we have named are present* The abstraction is artificial because the resolution of the Pelagian quarrel had affected all western thought upon the subject; yet it is not wholly invalid, since the haphazard and practical instructions, where the writer is not concerned with a theology of grace, may present a truer picture than the formal theological statement. We find at once that the book of the Institutes is permeated with an assumption kindred to the successive theory in the east. Reiterated emphasis is laid upon the powers of the will, the necessity for effort. The monk must and can fight to cut away the passions in order to achieve purity of heart : and when he is rid of the passions, he becomes a temple in which the Holy Ghost will dwell. One cannot receive the Holy Ghost unless first there is 1

Λ Literary History of Religious Thought in France (ET) m {1936), p. 117. 121

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mortification.1 The appeal, natural if mistaken, is thoroughly Origenist, thoroughly the appeal of any ascetical theologian. Curiously, the normally implicit conception becomes explicit where we should not expect to find it, in the twelfth book of the Institutes, dealing with pride. The greater part of this book treats the cure of pride in the conflicting and characteristic manner of the east and Bgypt—all responsibüity for the soul's prowess must be laid upon God. He quotes the favourite Augustinian texts: *It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' ' Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.' 'What hast thou which thou didst not receive?' Here is absolute dependence upon grace. Ascetic practices, conversion, progress, perfection, all are impossible without grace« And there is no mimmizing of the meaning of grace ; the Pelagians had referred it to externalities like the law or the preaching of the Gospel, In Cassian grace possesses its £ull Augustinian meaning, an interior working of God within the soul.1 Yet because he is an ascetical theologian; because he is writing for the novices and the inexperienced; because he feels impelled, even here, to push his monks into the spiritual fight—he turns with a remarkable inconsistency to stating the successive theory of free will and grace in explicit form: When vre say that human efforts cannot of themselves secure perfection without the aid of God, we thus insist that God** mercy and grace are bestowed only upon those who labour and exert themselves... It is given to them that ask, and opened to them that knock, and found by them that seek*... For he is at hand to bestow all these things, if only the opportunity is given to him by our good wilL^ First the will acts, then the grace is given. The eastern ascetics had said: 'Grace springs from the desire for it.' 4 Cassian follows them. 1

Inst. v. ai, vr. 18, VTIL 12, 22, ix. 3, xu. 31. Jitit. xn, 18; cf. 6, 9-1 r, 17, 33. z Inst, xn, 14 (Gibson) ; cf. Coll xx, 8, 9, * Chrysostom, Horn. IV in Gen. 1 (PC Ιΐσ, 39) ; paraphrased by Hoch, Lehre, p. n o . 1

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This successive attitude may be explained partially by certain features of his doctrine of man. His thought centres, not upon original sin, but upon the strife between flesh and spirit. The carnality in man which is the result of the Fall, has not made man incapable of doing good: it has rather produced a tension in human nature whereby the sinful desires pull against the spiritual desires. In the middle of the strife, between the flesh on the one side and the spirit on the other, the free will is set, keeping a species of equilibrium« mamtaining the tension* He calls the free will *the balance in the scales of the body**1 This is not Pelagian. Pelagianism, though not Pclagius» conceived freedom as perfect liberty to choose between right and wrong* This view contradicts the normal tacts of human experience, where the will is felt to be surrounded and pressed down by instincts and society and environment and heredity* In Augustine a man*s will is truly tree, not when he is at liberty to choose right or wrong, since in the present conditions of fallen human nature that may be no true freedom, but rather when he is free to devote himself to the service of God, which is the rulfdment and perfection of freedom* Cassian has been influenced by this theory. *That man becomes truly free*, he once wrote, 'who has begun to become thy prisoner, 2 Lord Jesus.* The will possesses no perfect liberty of choice since it is affected continuously by the conditions of the carnal and spiritual war. Nevertheless this equilibrium between the good and the evil differs from the Augustinian conception where the human will has descended wholly upon the side of the flesh. And the dualist metaphor, according to which the flesh must be chastened by vigils and fasts and solitude in order that the spirit may triumph, might imply, unless compensatory statements were set down elsewhere, the successive theory» He compares the soul to a feather« If undamaged and dry, the feather is carried up to the sky by a little breath of wind because its nature is so light, but if it is weighed down by damp, it cannot moveJ The soul affected by faults stays on the ground: purged of faults it will rise naturally to heaven—a simile with successive implications. Moreover, since tension produced by the strife of flesh and spirit is advantageous and since, as we have seen, the carnal instincts have their beneficent 1

Colt. rv. 12. 3.

a

De Inc. να. ι. 2. 123

* Coil. τχ. +,

J O H N CASSIAN

purpose in the spiritual li&, Cassian cannot take the dire Augustinian view of ccrticupiscencc* Augustine regarded concupiscence as the evil punishment of the Fall*1 For Cassian it is a * useful' aid in stirring the soul to advance in the spiritual life*1 A further indication of the manner in which the whole eastern theological tradition led him to anti-Augustinianism. may be found in the effects of Creationism, Augustine, though he inclined toward the traducianist theory that the soul is descended like the body from the human parent and that original sin was thus transmitted, never fully made up his mind.1 Cassian held with the east that every soul was created individually by God and inserted in the physical body born from the parents.4 In this theory original sin, in Augustine's sense, does not fit easily; for sin, it could be argued, must have its roots only in the material elements of human nature. And if the soul has been affected towards sin through its association with the body, the road towards a recovery of perfection must lie through the mortification of the body* This combination of eastern theology and eastern asceticism naturally drove Cassian to an emphasis upon the powers of the human will: and this emphasis cohered easily with the third expected element, the abstraction from grace in so much of ascetical theology* Cassian pushes his stress upon striving and effort to Ue very limits of the capacities of the will« The whole weight in the Institutes is thrown upon the necessity for exertion* The monk must fight to achieve purity of heart, he must work to eject the seeds of the vices, he must fast and watch and labour with his hands, he must direct his mental process and ward off devilish temptations—with little suggestion that unless grace stands constantly influencing his will, no advance is possible« Yet it is certain that grace is not discarded, but throughout assumed, on account of the enormous importance attached to prayer. Not only does he urge them incessantly to pray; occasionally he reveals specimen prayers, always quotations from the psalter suitable to the mouth of the publican, not the Pharisee: 'Order my steps in thy paths 1

De nupt. et cone. I. 23. 25, Colt, rv, 7, 12-iH; Hoch, Lehre, p. 2%. î De Anima ι. 2$. * Coll. vm. 25. 1

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that my footsteps slip not*, ' He hath set my feet upon a rock and ordered my goings*, Ό God make speed to save me: Ο Lord make haste to help me.* * These devotional signs of trust in grace are the more impressive because they are incidental. Any reader of the magnificent passage in praise of this last ejaculation will have no doubt that with Cassian grace was presupposed, not omitted. Therefore the incitements to effort, the striving of the will» cannot be rightly understood unless there are taken into account the frequent passages in which he stresses entire dependence upon God and the necessity of grace* The references are numerous : it will be sufficient to quote one passage here: God is not only the suggester of what is good, but the maintainer and insister of it, so that sometimes he draws us towards salvation even against our will and without our knowing it.* Cassian never suggests that sin can be overcome^, that the Christian road can be travelled, unless God grant his grace. Once he summarizes his teaching on the conquest of evil by the simple quotation of the aposde : * Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord?' ^ And even Gazetfelt impelled to guard against a Lutheran interpretation of the text * All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags *.* No absurdity is to be seen in the retention of these two apparently incompatible theses within one man» It is Cassian*s way of emphasizing the two truths of the Christian faith, that man depends absolutely upon God, and that his will has full responsibility for choice between good and evil* These truths appear incompatible in Cassian because he is influenced by the Augustinian idea of grace as force, a view which seems to make grace and free will mutually exclusive. But the fact that he emphasizes the 1

CotL m. i2i χ. ίο*

* Coll. vu. 8. 2 {Gibson). Apart from Coll. xm, the main references are Inst. xu. 4�18, 30; De Inc. n. 5; Coli. m. 10�19, tv. S, v. 14�15, and many other lesser passages� ' Coll. xxn. I3r 7, ϊ4�βη, * Isaiah briv. 6. Gaat*s note ap. Coll xxm. 4, 2 [PL xux, 12+7). An anti� Roman, author published in 152& a Conference ofJohn Cassian on fee wilt which included chapters drawn from several Conferences and represented his teaching on grace as thoroughly Augustinian. 125

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moral responsibüity of die will at one point does not mean that he is Pelagiamzing, provided that he stresses the necessity of grace at another point He is the teacher, emphasizing opposite sides of the same question for practical reasons. Grace is not set in antithesis to freedom of the will, but to laziness.1 Only when there is need of a formal theological treatise, of a strict definition of the limits of moral responsibüity and the limits of moral dependence, does the doctrine become dubious. Hence came the concentration of his chief opponent upon Conference xm. Accusers of Cassian who rely upon quotations outside the formal theology of Conference xm would have to condemn many a Christian moralist, beginning with St James. 4. THE THIRTEENTH CONFERENCE The arrival of the work On Rebuke and Grace in Provence aroused vehement contradiction* But theological negations are always unsatisfactory unless supplemented by attempts to discover a sound alternative. The leader of the protestants would be expected to supply this constructive theory: and since Cassian was then engaged upon the publication of a work which resolved itself naturally into sections, he determined to devote one of these sections, Conference xm, to the systematic study of the respective parts played by grace and free will. The word system^ as applied to Cassian, is always euphemistic: perhaps he comes nearer to such a thing in this Conference than in any other. Chaeremon has been teaching, in Conference xn, on the cure of fornication, and has emphasized that in the spiritual life the conquest of evil lies with God alone—'human virtue is nothing« if the virtue of God does not help.' * Man cannot heal himself: for unless the Lord build the house, his labour is but lost. Germanus, worried by this teaching, puts to Chaeremon from the common Pelagian standpoint the same question which the monks of Susa had sent 1

Hoch« Lehre, p. 113. The Jesuit commentator Cuyck strongly made the point that Cassian's Pelagiamzing statements must be supplemented by his fuller faith elsewhere, and held that the theory that only if a man struggles will grace come to him expressed a valuable Catholic truth [PL L. 311). On the other hand the early Jesuit theology of grace did not escape criticism. 1 Coll. xn. 15. 3. The same point is made Coll. xn. 12. 3-4, where the glory tor the conquest of evil is given entirely to God, I20

GRACE

to Augustine and which was worrying southern Gaul* Surely this doctrine« by informing us that our own moral efforts are worthless, weakens the will to good and removes all human moral responsibility?1 Chaeremon answers with a simile of iarming. The farmer, though he may work all day and all night, can never claim that his own efforts cause the crops to grow, but must always return thanks to God; and while it is true that the gift of crops is not bestowed upon an idle farmer, the hardest travail would be vain were it not for the mercy of the Lord. Therefore in the spirimal life, all progress, even the beginnings, must be ascribed to the f mercy of God. lt is our part humbly to follow the grace of God as it draws us on day by day.'* In every single matter of the ascetic life we need the aid and the consolation of God to assist us on our way. Who could tolerate, for example, lack of sleep, or continual thirst, or assiduous reading, but for the merciful compassion of the Lord? Without God's help we can neither serve him nor maintain a desire to serve him. 3 The human heart resembles a hard flint: when God sees the faintest spark of love in the heart he pours in his grace—but he himself strikes that spark from the flint.* So far we have an excellent statement of absolute dependence. Prosper called the key�passage definiHo CatholieissimaJ God's grace works in the whole process of human salvation. This dependence appears to remove free will. Cassian therefore continues by an apparent contradiction. There is room for the exercise of human effort. There arc two ways in which a man may receive the beginnings of a devoted will, ortus honae voluntatis, 1

Coll. xm. 1�2. * Ibid. 3. 6: nostrum vero est ut cotidie adtrahenrem nos gratiam dci humilicer subscquamur. * Ibid, 6. 3 : omnia sicut desidcrari a nobis ingiter absque divina inspiratiooc non possunt, ita nee perfici quidcrn sine eius auxilio uliatenus queunt. * Ibid. 7. 1. ί Contra CoU. n. 2, The particular passage to which he refer* is CoU� xm. J, 5: ' non solum actuutn* verum eö'arn cogttationum bonorum ex deo esse prindpium, qui nobis et initia sanctac voluntatis inspirât et virtutem atque Opportunitäten) eomm quae recte cupimus tribuitperagendi: "omne enim datum bonum et omne domim perfectum de sursum est degeendens a pâtre lurniuum" qui et iticïpit quae bona sunt et exsequitur et consummat in nobis/ 127

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in his heart: the first comes when he is drawn by the grace of God even against his will as the spark is drawn from the flint; a soul may be saved by God even while it is hurtling towards hell: but the second is due to man himself, who is capable of making the first tiny turn ofhis heart in the direction of God. When God sees these first beginnings in a soul, whether he has himself implanted them or whether they have arisen from human effort, then he brings that soul towards salvation with his co-operating grace.1 The proof of this double possibility is found in Scripture. On the one side we find in the Bible texts exhorting the soul to turn, on the other texts showing how it is God who turns the souL *Draw nigh unto the Lord and he will draw nigh unto you/ ' N o man cometh unto me except the Father who sent me draw him/ Against every one of the chief texts cited in favour of grace by the book On Rebuke and Grace (with one exception, 'What hast thou which thou didst not receive ?*), Cassian can place a text emphasizing the moral responsibüity of the human will. Moreover he can give Scriptural examples of souls turned to God in these two ways. Paul and Matthew, Simon and Andrew and all the apostles, were drawn to God by his grace when dieir wills were either not looking for him or were hostile. Zacchaeus and the penitent thief and Cornehus the centurion made the first move towards salvation, to receive at once the divine grace. The will is weak, unsound : but is not incapable at times of willing good though not of perforrning it* King David planned to build a temple; and God^ though he praises David for his holy purpose, yet does not wish it to be fulfilled and refuses to allow the temple to be built (L Kings viii. r8-ip). Here David's purpose was a good purpose, by the confession of God himself: yet it is not sent from God since it is unacceptable to him, and therefore must proceed from the heart of David*1 (This presented a poser to the Augustinians. When Prosper came to reply, he was reduced to an irrelevant allegory postulating that the text in Kings refers not to the temple built by Solomon, but to the spiritual temple built by Christ the son of David,) 3 The conclusion of this part, though it ' Colt. xm. &. 3. * Coll. xm. 12. 5-6. Contra Coll. xn. t. 2*

3

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îs not easy to see its logic* reasserts the concordance of grace and free will in spite of all appearances to the contrary.1 But Cassian would not leave matters in this inconsistency. He made a subde attempt to work back from this doctrine, that the origin of the good will may come from the soul or from God, towards the original definition of absolute dependence* While realizing that the problem has no clear-cut solution, he makes two suggestions : first, that the capacity for making the first turn of the will is itself God-given and therefore closely related to grace : and secondly, that if grace deserts the soul, God has the purpose of strengthening the will by testing, and therefore the failure of grace to cause the ortus bonne voluntatis may itself be an act of grace with the best possible results for salvation. The Fall has not caused total depravity in mankind, so the Greek fathers had taught.* Adam, as a result of the sin of pride, setting himself up against the commanding majesty of God,1 tell from the natural goodness which he had received at his creation« and acquired a will inclined towards evil. In Adam fell the whole human race; all are filled with the love of sin« the perversion towards evil, so that they cannot do the things that they would.4 So far Cassian accompanies Augustine: but in the teaching of the Doctor of Grace, the effects of the Fall are far more radical« for man has by the sin of Adam lost any power of doing good ; his will towards the good has perished utterly, with the consequence that without the grace of God there is nothing but depravity. In Cassian the human will is not portrayed so darkly» He quotes * the text of Genesis iii. 22; +Behold, Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil', Le. after the Fall Adam, while he has a bias toward and desire for evil, still has knowledge of the good; and since the human race has this knowledge of the good, it can sometimes perform it naturaliter, of its own free will 1

CoU. xm. 11. 4: vel gratia dei vel liberum arbitrium sibi quidem invioem videntur adversa sed utraque concordant, * Cf. Bethunc-Bakcr, Early History of Christian Doctrine, p, 307: *The moral powers might be enfeebled by the Fall* but with one voice, up to the time of Augustine, the teachers of the Church declared they were not lost/ 3 Inst. xn. j . * The effects of the Fall are described especbBy in Coll. xxm. 12-13. 5 Coil. xm. 12. 1. CJC

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unaided by grace except in so far as God is regarded as granting his grace when he originally created mankind capable of doing good. He continues with a statement which gives Prosper great pain; *Adam therefore after the Fall conceived a knowledge of evil which he had not previously, but did not lose the knowledge 71 of good which he had before. Prosper regards this as teaching the Pelagian doctrine that the human will is still sanus, healthy« and perfectly capable of doing good without the assistance of grace: and he unjustly charges Cassian with teaching that 'the will has not fallen \* In Augustine the will to good is dead: in Cassian it is not dead* but neither is it sanus. Rather he conceives the human will as sick, needing constant attention from the healing grace» but like a skk man still capable occasionally—if revived by medicine—of healthy acts. The Scriptural instances adduced—David, and the others—arc examples of such healthy acts performed by the sick will* For there are still within man 'natural' possibilities for good, semina virtutum.3 In so far as they have been created by GOCL, these natural possibilities are due to him—nevertheless these seeds of virtue are» naturaliter, part of human nature and lie within the sphere of man rather than the supernatural sphere of God* St Paul appeared to think that some of the Gentiles had* naturaliter, come to fulfil the will of God even when in ignorance of the law*4 The Lord liirnself recognized the possibility of natural good in the Pharisees when he asked them * Why of your own selves do ye not judge what is right?*—'and this*, says Cassian, 'he certainly would not have said to them unless he knew that hy their natural judgement they could discern what was fair*.5 Such instances, Prosper remarked,* fail to take account of the Holy Spirit which, like the wind, bloweth where it listeth» and they betray a certain 1

Coll. xm. ii. 2: concepit ergo Adam post pracvaricationem quam non habuerat sckntiam mali, boni vero quam accepcrat scicntiam non anUsit. " Contra Coll, m. 4�5, Cassian on the contrary speaks of the 'pravitas liberi arbitrii\ Coll. m. 12. 4. ' Colt. xm. 12. 7. A translation of Evagrius's σττΐρµατα τής άρέτη?. Cf. Frankenberg S3 and PG xx. 124c + Coli. xm. 12, 3. ' Luke xii. 57; Coll. xm. ia. 5 : quod urique non eis dixüact» nisi cos iudicio uaturali id quod acquum cm scisaet posse dbcerueie. 6 Contra Coü> x. 3. 130

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optimism in the natural powers of the human will. Cassian's exegesis of the clause in the Lord's Prayer, 'lead us not into temptation1, demonstrating that this cannot mean what it says since temptation must be faced and fought, shows the same confidence* Similarly he quotes with approval the opinion expressed in the Shepherd of Hermas that each man is free to choose between the two angels, one good and one bad, which watch over him: 1 and therefore it is not right so to attribute the merits of the saints to God that 'nothing but evil is postulated of human nature**1 The second, more subtle argument, teaches that grace is sometimes removed for the benefit of the soul.* To prevent the will becoming slothful and idle* grace may wait for some move on the par t of the will. (We see again the connexion in his mind between grace and laziness.) Scriptural instances are observable. Grace abandoned Job for a season in order that his will might be tested and proved, though God remained watching to prevent Satan from tempting him beyond his soul's capacity, In one sense we could say that the truest activity of grace was here the temporary removal of its aid. Cassian illustrates with a revealing portrait which is attractive as a clear summary ofhis thought. A nurse, who loves her child, after carrying him in her arms for some time« will help him to learn to crawl and then to walk, pardy by sup� potting him and protecting him from serious falls, pardy by withdrawing her arm altogether : and when the child has grown into a boy, it is essential for his true development that he has not constandy her arm to protect him but is 'exercised* in fending for himself* In the same way the true development of the soul will sometimes necessitate the withdrawal of grace. Therefore the temporary denial by God of grace to the soul in order to draw from it the ortus home voluntatis may be a higher activity of grace than its actual bestowal at that movement In the last chapters of the Conference Cassian turns the inscrutability of Gcwfs actions into a weapon against Augustine, and confesses that there can be no true solution in human thought because the ways of God are not the ways of men. He strikingly 1

Mend, VI. 2; Coll. xm. 12. 7. He may have known the instance through Origen, De Princ m. 2* 4 rather than the original. 3 * Coli xm. ία. $. Coll. xm. 13�14.

T3T

0�2

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quotes the great text which St Augustine always used when challenged to explain predestination (Cassian is using it against Augustine as one who was trying to explain what was far above him) : Ό the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out I For who hath known the mind of the Lord?* Where Augustine had meant that paltry human nature could not question the terrible decrees, Cassian was lifting up the problem as insoluble by human reason and logic. Certainly, he continues, the grace of God is overflowing and abounding,1 certainly it depends in no way on human merit for its bestowal. Fie ended the final chapter with all the emphasis on the free grace ofGod: It is proved by no doubtful faith but by experience... that God the Father of all things workcth inditterendy all dungs in all: now he puts into us the very beginnings of salvation, and gives to each the 2cal of his free will; and now grants the carrying�out of the work and the pe^iecting of goodness; and now saves men, even against their will and without their knowledge, from ruin that is close at hand and a headlong fall; and now affords them occasions and opportunities of salvation, and wards off" headlong and violent attacks from purposes that would bring death; and assists some who are already willing and running, while he draws others who are unwilling and resisting, and forces them to a good will.. », The God of all must be held to work in all, so as to incite, protect and strengthen, but not to take away the freedom of the will which he lumseif has once given. If however any more subtle influence of man's argumentation and reasoning seems opposed to this bterpretation, it should be avoided rather than brought forward to the destruction of the faith... for how God works all things in us and yet everything can be ascribed tofreewill, cannot be fully grasped by the mind and reason of man. (Gibson.) If the Conference is read through as a whole» and not used for the extraction of * semi�Pelagian* extracts, one receives an impression of emphatic delight in God*s grace. Theologically it must be confessed that no one who regarded grace and free will as mutually exclusive {and this was the doctrine which the Gauls imagined 1

Coll. xm. ιό. ι : absoluta plane premuntiamus sententii eriam exuberaxc gratiam dei. et transgredi humanae interdum inndelitatis angustias. 132

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Augustine to mean) could come to any greater refinement by which the absolute dependence upon God could be admitted while retaining some faith in human moral responsibüity. When we consider the premise from which he started, we must realize that Conference xm is a tour deforce. We should also expect a far greater reaction against Augustine, Extremist theology normally creates a reaction which swings too far* Cassian upon the central fact of dependence still alines himself with Augustine. In the way of negative opposition to Augustine, Cassian's doctrine is of importance in ecclesiastical history. We have already noticed their diiferent views of the Fall and its consequences. The will is sick, not dead as Augustine believed. Cassian treats grace, not so much as a divine gift recreating the whole nature of man, but as an indispensable tonic, a curing rather than a transforming force. Second in his opposition comes the explicit rejection of the more dubious theology contained in On Rebuke and Grace. Augustine, teaching that God calls a certain number to salvation, had with surprising awkwardness interpreted the text of I Timothy ii. 4 (*God willeth all men to be saved*) to mean that he willed salvation to all the predestinated amongst whom every race and type of men was represented.1 Cassian is outspoken upon the subject* How can we imagine without grievous blasphemy that he does not generally will all men» but only some instead of all to be saved? Those who perish, perish against his will.* For grace is not irresistible or indefectible. Man can reject it and so perish.3 No word is here of predestination to Hfe and death. As in the thought of Chrysostom, God bases his eternal distribution of grace only upon foreknowledge*4 1

De Corr. et Grat, XLIV; Enchiridion cm. Coll. xm, 7. 2 (Gibson). * Ibid. 8. 1-2. * Coll. xvn. 25, 14; 'ci (deo) ante orrum uniuscuiusque praecognitus finis.1 W e know from Prosper {ap. Augustine, Ep. cexxv. 5)« that some anti-August tinians solved che problem of the distribution of the divine call to those who died as infants by suggesting that it was decided according to their * hypothetical merits1, the lite which they would have lived. Cassian enters into no such speculative questions. 1

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Between Cassian and Augustine lay a diversity of experience— Cassian, a monk at least from the time he was a young man, perhaps a Christian from infancy, experiencing no radical revolution in heart and mind and will· Augustine, who found a chasm between his pagan and his new life, experiencing the recreation of his nature. Yet the effect ofthat unsatisfactory distinction between * once-born * and * twice-born \ may well be exaggerated. The monk's fear oîtepor and all that that implied for his inexperienced disciples, backed by the still stronger influence of traditional eastern theology, would adequately explain the opposition without any such resort to personal history. Perhaps the amount of agreement between them is more surprising than the disagreement* 5. THJB REPLY OF PROSPER

The retort to Conference xm in the pamphlet war need not detain us for long. The brief tract which Prosper published in 432 (or a little later) under the title of Contra Collatorem l is a particular examination of twelve propositions drawn from Conference xm. Throughout the book, Cassian is treated with respect: he is a Catholic doctor, a man of weighty counsel» a wise doctor, a teacher of truth: his knowledge of holy Scripture is more profound than that of all others*1 Tt is therefore, says Prosper, the more tragic that such a man should have fallen in this one point and thus broken the power of the Gospel which he has elsewhere taught so well» The patristic controversial method of text and counter-text does not lend itself easily to constructive theology, with the result that this Uttle work is almost entirely negative. Where Cassian has adduced a Scriptural quotation in favour of a certain proposition» his opponent brings forward a further text which seems to contradict or to explain or to compensate by referring all to God's grace. Cassian,3 for example, introduced Romans vii. 18: 'For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good 1

For an account of the Contra Collatorem see L, Valentin, 5, Prosper, pp. 311 rf ; Amann in DTC XTV (iQJy) 1825-7. * a. 1, IL 5, XTV. 2 : though Prosper is pointing out that his work has fallen away from these noble levels. 3 Coll. xtn. p, 5τ 34

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I find not'« which appears to signify a natural ortus bonae voluntatis in the apostle. Prosper1 in reply» having quoted * Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God* (II Cor, üi. 5)* and * For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure*, (Phil. ii. 13) argues that these texts show St Paul fundamentally disproving any idea of an original good will* and that the statement in Romans was made by a man already in a state of grace. The will to good had been given him» but even though he was seeking and asking and knocking, the power to do good had not yet been granted. The point is strong» for Cassian had elsewhere used the example of Paul as one who had been brought to God against his will. We need not enter into the particularities of Prosper** indictment. For the Contra Collatorem is propaganda presenting a parody of Cassian's teacliing. He attributes to Cassian what Cassian did not teach and then confuses the supposed doctrine. He argues that Cassian assumes a certain action may be easy with grace where it is possible without grace, and alleges that he would have to change the text of John xv. 5 into 'without me ye can do nothing without difliculty*.* Cassian is alleged to be teaching that in Adam the human race did not tall; that the will of man is healthy; that grace is given according to merit (the Pelagian proposition which Cassian explicitly denies).3 Prosper stoops to an unworthy manoeuvre when he drags in an oblique censure on that Conference (xvn) which appeared under certain circumstances to justify lying*4 Finally he quotes the authorities of councils and Popes against Pelagiatiism when in fact these authorities do not in the least apply to the anti-Augustinian doctrine. It is parody. Vincent's caricature of Augustine's doctrine in his Objections perhaps excused a similar reply from the Augustinian side. The Contra Collatorem concludes with an attempt to enlist the 1

Contra Colt. TV. 2. * Contra Coil. xv. 1-4. Prosper is imitating Augustine* e.g. Tract, hi loann. LXXXI, 3. 3 Coll xm. 16, 1. Prosper regards this a* sebrHMntradictory (Contra Coll. xvn. 1), * Contra Colt, v* 2.

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aid of the new Pope. In 432 Celestine died and was succeeded on the Papal throne by Sixtus III. Prosper cannot have felt optimistic that Sixtus would alter the policy of his predecessor by pronouncing in favour of Augustinianism* since in earlier and less definite days he was reported to have been a personal friend of the heresiarch Pelagius himself*1 We hear of no result from the appeal. And in one sense the Contra Collatorem marks the beginning of the end of the controversy. It is probably the earliest document in which Prosper has abandoned the attempt to preach predestination and irresistible grace* The historian, surveying the intrigues and enmities, the heresies and orthodoxies, the anathemas and counter-anathemas of that conciliar age» wistfully looks to discover some breath of tolerance and charity. The Migne text of Prosper's Chronicle of World History, written years later» records the existence of Cassian opposite A.D. 433, the year after the publicatiott of the Contra Collatorem, *The monk John, surnamed Cassian, lived at Marseilles» an outstanding and eloquent writer.' It would be satisfying to suggest that Prosper was that rarity in theological controversy» an opponent with charity, and that it is a sign both, of Cassian's prestige and of Prospers tolerance when praise can be given without hint of evil or heresy* But modern scholarship has confounded these sentimental hopes. The words were interpolated in the fifteenth century.* 6. CONCLUSION

During the fifth century the anti-Augustinians remained almost immune from attack. The issue was raised again under pressure from the eastern Church early in the sixth century. In 529 Caesarius of Aries, learned in the writings of Augustine» presided over a Council of Orange, where, without reference to predestination or its consequences* the prevenience of grace was asserted. In the appendix to its canons the Council cited the Cassianic instances of Zacchaeus and the penitent thief and 1

Augmtine, Ep. exexv. 1 : tristes eramus nimia, cum fama lactaret inimicis Christianac gntiae te fàvere. Cf. cxci. ι : inimiconrm magni moment! patronus. 1 Momiraen in Chron. Min. 1. 499.

I36

GRACE

Cornelius the centurion* claiming that the distinction between those'who turn to God by their own act, and those who are turned by him, is illusory* Cassian was certainly in error. Christianity demands that the human personality shall be wholly surrendered into the hands of God, that there be no reserve. Not the least of Augustine's services to the Church h the framing of this truth* Even if a tiny portion, an ortus bonae voluntatis, is kept out of the sphere of God» men may be encouraged to place ultimate reliance upon human nature instead of God. Yet his error sprang out of Augustine, whose view appeared to his readers to stultify moral responsibüity. For Christianity also demands that the moral personahty shall be independent, that God does not work upon the will with impersonal, machine-like control» so that the soul is a puppet pulled hither and thither by strings from heaven. Augustine thought to preserve both the dependence upon God and the autonomous personahty by suggesting that grace so worked upon the will that true freedom was achieved. The attempt was of high significance* Plainly moral autonomy and dependence upon God are not paradoxically contrasted as irreconcilable opposite*, but are at their highest one and the same thing. The reality of autonomy is only to be found in self-surrender. But perhaps no fully satisfactory statement of this truth has yet been achieved/ Augustine's effort to state it was found to be repugnant to the common feeling of the Church. Therefore Cassian and his disciples are owed a certain debt. They ensured that the Church should not be saddled with the aberrations of perhaps the greatest figure in western Christianity. His hostility to Augustine grew naturally from his ascetical doctrine* For him omnipresent grace meant idleness of the will. He was concerned to show that sin could be destroyed by accurate diagnosis and pertinent remedies, by ascesis of the will through mortification, by ascesis of the mind through prayer. The Origenist doctrine of God rather as the goal than as the present possession, the notion of a climb to God» hampered the apprehension or the sufficient expression of 1

For a courageous attempt, see John Oman, Grace and Personality (Cambridge,

1917).

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the corresponding thought of God as the author and guide and companion of the climb. Later centuries found it natural to use the paradoxical language that God was at once the goal and the way to the goal, *the inn upon the road and the end of the road» the runner in the race and the prize of the winner**1 Cassian in his deepest thought was aware of this; but he had not yet succeeded in bringing to the surface any fully adequate expression of it in language, and his moral exhortations always stressed the destination more than the aid of God on the joumey* 1

Nicolas Cabasilas. De Vita in Christo I in PG ex. 500.

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CHAPTER V

T H E LIFE O F

CONTEMPLATION

In the fifth century* mystical theology» in the later sense, was nonexistent in the west* and was mainly confined to Gregory of Nyssa in the east. Cassian was an ascetical theologian who takes his readers to the level of contemplation and there leaves them* To search in his writings for the intricate mystical ladder of a John of the Cross would be misguided and unhistorical* Nor was he philosophical* Some continental scholars have tried to define accurately each important word in his terminology and so distinguish in him a system. In reality it is possible to distinguish only certain general lines of thought.1 1. SINLESSNESS

In the framework of the Evagrian system, purgation, achieved through the practice of the Hfe of virtues, created the conditions under which the soul might contemplate, The acquisition of apathy, purity of heart in Cassian s thought, permitted an advance from the concern with vice and virtue rowards a pure vision of God unclouded by the distractions of earthly cares. No longer need the soul dig into the roots of past sin: the purgation period must be put aside« the negative attitude must yield to the positive.2 In some eastern schools of thought the attainment of apathy had implied sinlessness. We must therefore ask whether Cassian regarded sinlessness as a possibility for the ascetic and as a necessary condition for pure contemplation of God. He admitted that some ascetics consider sinlessness to be within the power ofhuman nature and devoted Conference xxm to denying the possibility. The soul is bound to leave the divine vision because of that law in human nature resulting from the Fall* The word 1

Marsili, in spite of a récognition that the terms used are sometimes inaccurate, docs go too tar in drawing the scattered threads in the Conferences into a logical coherence, Oiphc-GaDurd, in his otherwise excellent article in DSAM, goes still further. 1 This is the idea underlying the peculiar little Conference xx. For a striking illustration of a similar idea in brer thought* e£ E. Uaderhill» Mysticism, p. 219. 139

J O H N CASSIAN

saint is not a synonym of the word immaculatei only Christ was immaculate*1 When however an examination is made of the method of this denial, certain peculiar features are observed. For he k prepared to recognize sinlessness so far as virtues and vices are concerned. He will allow that an ascetic may achieve the destruction of all his faults. Yet this is not sinlessness» since the mind cannot maintain its hold upon the contemplation of God ; and in the eyes of the saint even momentary departure from contemplation is the vilest sin* He will allow the full possession of virtues—modesty, continence, humility and the rest—but not the possibility of keeping the mind concentrated on God*1 Hence his denial of sinlessness involves the admission that the principal barrier for the monk lies not in the commission of external sin, but in the slippery thoughts ofhis own mind. There is thus a perfection of the actualb vitat attained for example by Abbot Sarapioriy1 possible of achievement during earthly existence, but not a perfection of the contemplative lifo. 2. T H B M I N D

The means of contemplation in Origenist thought had been intellectualist, the apprehension of God by nous. Evagrius had received directly from Gregory Nazianzene the threefold Platonist division of the soul, with a rational part at the summit.4 All the earlier western writers follow Augustine and Cassian in regarding contemplation as the mens seeing God, union as the linking of the mens to God.5 Since the mind through the Fall is so unstable and wandering that it can never be still, the problem of contemplation consists in fixing the mind to a single point—God. Cassian reverts to the difficult)' of the mobile mind perhaps more frequently 1 1

Coll xxn. *. 2-4, xxm.

ïp.uis.

Colt. xxm. η. ι, 15. j , id. 20. Contrait Augtutine*s distinction between the crimen of which holy men cannot be guiky and the sin of which they can, in Enchiridion LXIV. 3 Coll. x. 3 : in actuali disciplina per omnia consummatus. 4 Evagrius's division in PG XL. 1230"; Cassian in Coll, xmv, 15, 3; M� Vilkr, RAM (April, 1930), p. i<5o, 5 Later writers identified mens or apex mentis with the 'rund 1 of the soul (Butler, Western Mysticism, itid ed., p. Lac). I40

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

than to any other subject dealt with in the Conferences.1 Swarms of thoughts enter the mind, whether suggested by devils or by earthly distractions; Cassian holds that the mind can never be without thought of some kind and therefore he does not conceive the problem in quite the Evagrian way. Where Evagrius sees in the stripping naked of the mind the road to self�foi^etfulness, anaesthesia, and to pure prayer» Cassian sees, in the same stripping, the work of the devils themselves.* The mind must rather attempt 1 3 to control the * ascending and * descending* thoughts, until the former predominate over the latter. But despite this difference, Cassian conceives that in the later stages there is progressive simplification until the state of pure prayer (pura oratio, purissitrta oratio) is reached where the prayer is so concentrated upon God alone that the mind has come to unity from diversity and holds one prayer» one thought. The difference between this doctrine and the Evagrian cotifrontation of the nous with God in anaesthesia is more verbal than fundamental* The point will be clarified by an exarnination of the Cassianic doctrine of pure prayer, that characteristically Evagrian conception* 3. PRAYER A N D PURE PRAYER

The two Conferences attributed to Abbot Isaac on prayer contain the most famous and most quoted passages in Cassian's work. It is a commentary upon his haphazard methods that those who have quoted him have been unable to agree on the exact scheme of prayer, if indeed it is a scheme, which he has tried to present* Isaac leads into the idea of pure prayer with advice upon the earlier stages of practice and preparation» advice which may be reduced to the affirmation that since the whole lire affects the period of prayer, recollection must be attempted before the time 1

Coil, vn, De anunae mobiiitate. x. 8�19, xrx. 11. 1�2, xxm, 19. 1, et passim. To describe the mind he employs the charming metaphor of the staggering of a. drunken man {x 8, 0" and 13, i). The mind is Αεικίνητο* (CoU. vu, 4. i), a word used by the Evagrian school; cf. Nilus, De Morutcti. Praest. xxm and De Vol, Paup. LXi. Cf. Ακίνητο? in Evagrius, Cent. m. 27, Fcankenberg 207. * 'Vacate cunctis oogirarionibus humana mens non potest4 (Coli. χτν. 13. 2); the demons can make the soul ' vacua ac nuda> in Coil. vm. 19. 2. J Coll. vn. 4, 3. 141

JOHN CASSIAN

comes : ' We should be as we would wish to be during our prayers before we even begin to pray/ 1 The * lower* types of prayer like penitence, intercession and thanksgiving are summarized in the Lord*s Prayer, but even this is only a stage towards a still loftier prayer, which he names sometimes 'fire prayer*, sometimes *pure prayer ' ; though we shall see that between *frre* and 'pure* prayer there is a distinction. Since an important question hangs upon the point, his descriptions of this type must be set down in his own words. (i) 'The mind, like some incomprehensible and all-devouring flame« will offer up to God inexpressible prayer of the purest force, which the Spirit itself, intervening with groanings that cannot be uttered, while we ourselves understand not, pours forth to God, grasping at that hour and ineffably pouring forth in its supplications things so great that they cannot be uttered with the mouth, nor even at any other time be recollected by the mind' {Coll IX. 15. 2: Gibson),

(ii) This type of prayer is marked by no vocal sound, but i the mind, enlightened by the infusion ofthat heavenly light.. .pours forth richly as from a copious fountain in an accumulation of thoughts*,.* (Coll. ix. 25. 1; Gibson). (iii) This prayer is unconnected with any image or intellectual concept in the mind (Coll x* II* o; cf. x. 5. 3). The purest condition of prayer 'not only will not connect with its prayers any figure of the Godhead or bodily lineaments (which it is a sin even to speak of) but will not even allow in itself even the memory of a name, or the appearance of an action, or an outline of any character* (Gibson). Here speaks the Origenist against the anthropomorphite. There are obvious affinities with the anaesthesia of Evagrius; yet in the second statement the mind has not gone out of action, it is still able to pour forth a host of thoughts which are, however, above human thoughts, and are incapable of interpretation in human terms. Evidently« even in this ineffable prayer, the final stage of simplification has not been reached* And so we find that, in the highest stage of contemplation, the mind is represented as stripping 1

Coll. IX, 3, X. 14. 2. For the fourfold lower types of prayer discussed in Coli IX» cf. Evagrius in Frankcnbcrg 45j. I42

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

itself of the ' wealth* of thoughts and confining itself to a * poverty ' of thought by repeating over and over again one little verse of the psalms as it gazes upon God : ' Ο God make speed to save me : Ο Lord make haste to help me.' 1 This ejaculation« ceaselessly repeated, represents Cassian*s last step to the highest stage, where the mind is engaged in continuous prayer (which to him is the equivalent of contemplation) and has rejected all images and distractions and thoughts, except the one thought of God, The problem is this : is Cassian describing a supernatural experience of ravishing, in the nature of a trance, or is the condition which he portrays nothing but that contemplative simplification which is a commonplace in later mystical theology? Diverse judgements have been passed, for example, upon the famous Antonian dictum with which Cassian summarized his teaching: *It is not a perfect prayer in which the monk is conscious of himself or understands (intellegit) his prayer/ 4 This is criticized by Dr Kirk J on the ground that it is making the semi�cataleptic condition the test of true prayer; while it is wholeheartedly accepted by Dom John Chapman and Dom Cuthbert Butler 4 as non�ecstatic and as an early description of the stripping of the intellectual faculties in the first stage of contemplation. In many of the phrases describing ineffable* prayer, he uses the phrase excessus mentis which is undoubtedly the Latin equivalent of ecstasis.î In some passages there is clearly a supernatural significance. The phrase is used to describe the divine vision to Peter upon the roof at Joppa; those who undergo it may be able to see into the future and certainly obtain a deeper perception into heavenly truth; Abbot John described how in Scete his mind lost all feeling for the outer material world» so that neither eyes nor ears would perform their function,* Yet a case can be argued for the opposite, non-ecstatic, view. 1

Colt x. I I . r, an important stage in the origins of Hesychasm and the Jesusprayer. * Coll. ix. 31. 3 The Vision of God, p, 100, 4 'Contemplative Prayer\ printed as Appendix I to The Spiritual Letters of Dom John Chapmant ψ, 290 ; Butler, Western Mysticism, p. xxx'ui ; e t Baker, Holy Wisdom 1. ül 4. l i j . 5 E.g. Jerome, Hebr, quaest, in Gen. 11. 21 in PL xxm. 989-90. * Inst. m. 3. 4; Coll. vi. 10. 2, χτχ. 4, I. 143

JOHN CASSIAN

The consensus of Christian thought upon the beginnings of contemplation may be summarized thus : from the discursive use of the mind in meditation, the soul passes by a gradual simplification of thought to a condition where it does not need mental variety in order to pray, but can rest * satisfied* and more deeply satisfied, with a simple look at God than it was at first with much thinking\ T In these early stages the soul is frequently filled with sensible sweetness, with spiritual delight in God. This sweetness vanishes as advance is made upon the contemplative way, until the soul confronts God in a cloud of unknowing, dimly and ignorandy, while the intellect, without concepts and without images, is not only at rest but cannot think discursively at all. Chapman defined the essence of mysticism as *the use of pure intellect without images, and pure will without emotions'.* In pure contemplation all the faculties of the intellect and the heart are silenced in face of the simple longing for God. Some have held that Cassian's Conferences on prayer offer an early presentation of this doctrine formulated in later centuries. Butler believed that the ecstasies described by Cassian must not be regarded as cataleptic : not only are they unaccompanied by the visions and the locutions which are too frequently associated with mystical ecstasy in the modern sense, but there is no element in the descriptions which could not be applied to a concentration upon God so absolute as to make the senses oblivious of the 3 material world. Even the deeper perception into divine mysteries which appears to accompany the experience may be interpreted as the norm: for men and women of prayer have repeatedly claimed that the practice of contemplative prayeT deepens insight into the truths of the Christian religion. A still stronger indication is found in the examples given of the circumstances under which this excessus mentis may occur—when the monk hears a verse of the psalms, or the cantor singing; at a conference with an elder ; at the death of one of the brethren; sometimes even by the recollection of lack of devotion—incidents such as these may give 1

F. P. Hartem, Elements of the Spiritual Life, p, 261, ' Spiritual Letters, p. 76. 3 Butler, Benedictine Monachism, pp. Β1�2. CÎ. his judgement upon the phenomenon of ecstasy in Augustine [Western Mysticism, p. 71).

I44

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

rise to the highest form of prayer,1 These practical accidents of daily life could scarcely give rise to the cataleptic experiences of ecstatics in the modern sense. Excessus therefore is not a condition of trance, but rather an intense concentration upon God mingled with the fervent feelings of spiritual delight which are at first the natural concomitant of this concentration.* Neither of these rival views adequately covers all the facts. The descriptions of ecstatic prayer, though betraying none of the freak experiences of later trances» cannot be resolved into an intense concentration* On the other hand, there can be no possible doubt that the theory of stripping the mind is a prirnitive attempt, groping and hesitant at times, to express the normal contemplative action. The lack of concepts and of words and the concentration of thoughts into a unity in his idea of pure prayer must be equated with the common process of simpJirying the faculties. But a simple solution presents itself. By later standards he has confused the temporary €delights* or 'elevations*, met by some souls struggling to contemplate, with the developed and steadier thrust towards God which may offer similarly ecstatic symptoms* Thus fire prayer is not in fact the prayer of an experienced contemplative, but a dart-like prayer of a man not yet pure in heart but raised for a sudden and brief moment to that state of pure prayer which can only be attained by the pure in heart. Pure prayer is thus a condition whose witness and proof is the experience of ecstasy which has been offered at odd moments much earlier. This failure of Cassian to clistinguish between a transient experience and the sensation of solid contemplation under certain conditions, has led to some confusion of thought* The weakness of this psychological diagnosis can be seen in his test of the purity of prayer. He avows, intellectually, that the ultimate goal is not a state of experience but God: yet the judgement upon the supreme act or state of contemplation, as he sees T

Coll. rx. i<S; cf Inst, IL ίο. i. ' Butler (Western Mysticism, pp. rig ft) thinks that St Gregory, whose teaching upon ecstasy resembles that of Cassian* speaks figuratively and without reference to 'psycho�physical phenomena'. An Origenist exposition of ecstasy as the highest ptaycr is given in De Vclmtarla Pattperiate χχ\τί, attributed to Nilus, where comparison is made with Paul's elevation to the third heaven and, as in CassiatL with Peter's vision at Joppa, CJC

145

10

J O H N CASSIAN

it, is based upon feeling. The contemplative seems to be seeking not so much after God directly as after the experience of ecstasy which signifies to him that he is contemplating God. Hence mental and spiritual dryness becomes a sign of failure in contemplation, whereas the feeling of sweetness is a reliable sign of success* He docs occasionally teach that mental dryness may indeed be sent from the Lord, to discipline the soul and to ensure humility, God is like a doctor who painfully operates upon a septic wound, and may send a lack of spiritual consolation for the soul*s benefit» 'Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.* A saint can use both the consolations and the dryness for the advancement ofhis soul, and he is thus described as 'ambidextrous', who on his right hand has all the spiritual gifts, contemplation, prayer, ecstasy, and on his left hand temptations, lusts, accidie, spiritual dryness and lukewarmness, so that psalms and prayers nauseate liim,1 Cassian interprets * Forsake me not utterly' as implying that to be forsaken a little may be for the benefit of the soul.1 Nevertheless, despite these admissions that dryness is not necessarily less heaven-sent than sweetness, the criterion of pure contemplation remains in the last resort the spiritual feeling of the soul, and the aim that state where the soul is filled with the utmost gladness of heart, together with inexpressible delight and abundance of the holiest feelings, so that I will not say speech, but even feeling could not follow it, and pure prayers were readily breathed, and the mind being tilled with spiritual fruits, praying to God even in sleep ccnaâfiel that its petitions rose lightly and powerfully to God.3 All the time he seems to be aiming at a return to sweetness and ecstasy. To Cassian spiritual experiences are not food for beginners, they are rather part of the ultimate goaL4 He gives no hint 1

Coll v}. 6-10, The 'ambidextrous* metaphor is an allegory from Ehud in judges iii. i j (LXX), * CoU. rv. 4-6; c£ G r e g o r Moralia xx. j i . s Colt. rv. 2 (Gibson). 4 For ecstasy, cf. the references in Kirk, and in Butler, Western Mysticism. The desire for ecstatic sweetness also forms an important part of the contemplative aim in the Pioretti: e.g. tv. u, xrv, xv. xxvin, etc, pastim, »»rnetimes it is dddy (50.VH), GÜC3 (Xï) defined contemplation as * a divine flame and a sweet emanation of the Holy Ghost, and a rapture and an exaltation of the mind, which is inebriated in the contemplation of that ineffable savour of divine sweetness ; it is a sweet

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that contemplation might sooner or later bring mental and spiritual suffering, and there is something shallow about his advocacy of contemplation as suavissima,1 for such inducement would not benefit his inexperienced monks. We are often filled by his sudden visitation with sweet odours, beyond the power of human composition, so that the soul is ravished with these delights and caught up as it were into an ecstasy of spirit and becomes oblivious of the fact that it is still in the flesh.* That passage is an incitement to his monks to assess the success and the purity of their prayers by the test of hedonism. 4. C O N T E M P L A T I O N

The supreme goal of life, the kingdom of God itself, is to be found, in Cassian as in the Alexandrians, in the direct perception of God without mediation through creatures, the gloriosissima visio dei? He is at one with Egyptian tradition in believing that none may enter upon this way who has not first undertaken the 'practical* training of the active life. The monk cannot contemplate if he is proud, unchaste or dejected, if he is not seeking detachment from created things.* But while Cassian reiterates these warnings, he tells us httle ofhis conception of the vision.3 There is an attractive simplicity about this refusal to enter into details* Anyone who has read among the writings of the Catholic mystics from the later Middle Ages to the present day will find in Cassian a comfortable austerity. The pure prayer of Evagrius and Cassian is identical with contemplation. Therefore as prayer is reduced from a multiplicity of thoughts to simplicity, the object of contemplation, which began by being complex, becomes little by httle a unity. Some texts of Luke x. 41-2 (possibly the true text) read: 'Thou art and peaceful and gentle delighr of the soul that is lifted up and rapt in great marvel at the glory of supernal and celestial things—a. burning inward sense of celestial and unspeakable glory' ftx. T. Okey). Later medieval mysticism suffered much from this outlook. A typical attitude is that of Ludolph of Saxony, who in his preface to the Vita Christi advocated meditation upon the Incarnation largely on grounds of the 'sweetness' available to the souL ' Coti. MC* praef. 7. 1 3 Colt. rvr 5 (Gibson). CoU. xr. 12. 2r * Coll. xiv, i-a, m. 6, 10. S The small quantity of evidence available is admirably summarized by Butler in Benedictine Monachism, pp. 80-1, 147

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JOHN CASSIAN

careful and troubled about many things; but few things are needful or only one.' Cassian's exegesis allowed him to distinguish a ladder of contemplation in three rungs—the contemplation of many things, the contemplation of a few, the contemplation of one alone. The middle stage consists in the contemplation of angels or saints as well as God and corresponds to the penultimate stage in the Evagrian system, gnosis of nature: and this must give way to gnosis of God alone, scientia dei.* But the knowledge and vision do not bring a direct sight of the essence of the Godhead itself Though that is promised for the future, it is hidden from mortal eyes.1 The effects of contemplation are mentioned occasionally* As in Greek and Augustinian thought, it brings union with God, by union of wills though not in essence*3 The soul comes to the image and likeness of God, it feeds on the beauty and knowledge of God, it receives the mdwelling Christ, the Holy Spirit,4 it is inumined, it attains to the adopted Sonship and possesses all that belongs to the Father. S The soul is so filled that it begins to share in the love of the Blessed Trinity, to reach a state where God shall be all our love, and every desire and wish and effort, every thought of ours, and all out life and words and breath, and that unity which already exists between the Father and the Son, and the Son and the Father, has been shed abroad in our hearts and minds. The omissions are interesting. He advocates neither the theory J of * deification nor the Evagrian hght�mysricism; nor does he employ that text so common in later thought, 'partakers of the divine nature* (II Peter i. 4). 5. NEGATIVE MYSTICISM?

All Christian contemplation must be judged by one standard— whether the soul is attempting to contemplate God without mediation or whether it contemplates God by means of his 1

α Coll t, 8; cf, Marsili. pp. 46�7, 123�4. Coil. 1. 31. 1. J He uses the words unire (Coll. n. 2. 2, xix. 8. 4}. inhaerere (L 13. 1, n. a. a), eohaerere (τ. Ii, xi. 15, xxi, $), copulatus (1, 13, I. X. η. 2, ΰ, et aJ.), A Coll. L 8. 3» VIL 13. 1» xj. 9. 1 ; Inst, v, 17, M, etc ' Coll. xxrv. 26. 4. * Coll. x. 7 (Gibson). 1 The extreme wing of Oriental mysticism was represented at the time by the

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THE LIFE OP CONTEMPLATION

self-revelation in the life of Jesus Christ» In the one it becomes akin to the extreme or moderate manifestations of an Oriental mysticism, wherein the soul in the effort to realize immensity and changelessness and eternity becomes lost in the vast ocean of God until ultimately it is contempbting zero. In the other, the vision is constandy renewed and conditioned by meditation upon the earthly life of Jesus Christ. Cassian is obviously a contemplative; but it is not at first sight so easy to decide into which of the two categories his contemplation falls* Certain facts seem to bear out the theory that it is of the negative subChristian type in which a man, while imagining himself to be contemplating the sublime and limitless Absolute, does in fact contemplate zero. In both Institutes and Conferences he is concerned with die method of contemplation to such an extent that its object is often neglected, as though it does not matter much what a man contemplates so long as he contemplates something. In these monastic books we hear httle, surprisingly little, of the Gospel, of the earthly life ofJesus Christ, of the revelation of God. His one doctrinal definition of the nature of the Godhead is given in contradiction of anthropomorphism—' invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, inestimable, simple and not made'. 1 A series of negations is hardly a positive object for human contemplation. It could be argued that he is travelling towards the mystic doctrine of the pseudo-Dionysius, that God can only be truly described by means of negatives. The doctrine of the ineffable ecstasy sounds negative* And when he speaks of the nature of contemplation, he Messalkn sects, from whom we have extant the Syriac Liber Gradttum and the pseudo-Macarian homilies (which were certainly used by the Mcssalians, though it now seems doubtful whether they were Messalian in origin; c£ Völker, Theol. Lit. Zeitung (1943), pp. 139 ff.). Dom A. Kemmer, O.S.B. (in Charisma Maximum. Untersuchung zu VoUkommenheitsideat Cassions und seiner Stellung zur Messalianismus, 1936), holds that Cassian is actually dependent upon the Liber Gradvunty and goes so tar as to attribute his semi-Fclagian tendencies to the influence of the Macarian homilies. These views are accepted by Olphe-Galliard in RAM (1939), pp. 206ff. Kemmcr'a thesis has not been accessible co me: but I can see no evidence to warrant it and it has been pulverized by continental scholarship; cf L Hausherr, OCP vi (1040), p. 149; B. Capelle. RHE xxxtx (1943), pp. 471-i; and F. Dörr, reviewed by Capelle in Bulletin de TheOl, Am, et Me'd. V (1940), p. 14: 'La thèse ne présente aucune sérieuse probabilité? Coll. vn strongly attacks the Messalian tenet of a unioû of the soul with the deviL 1 Inst. vra. 4. 1. 149

JOHN CASSIAN

urges the monk to pass from the earthly life of Jesus to a higher vision* There are souls who best contemplate 'Jesus still humble and in the flesh* ; but he thinks that these souls are not advanced, that they are still hindered by 'Jewish weakness*, and that the truly contemplative soul turns to the glorified Lord. In this sense he interprets II Cor. v. iö: "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more/ Christ's humanity has been 'absorbed' into Divinity.1 Origen and Evagrius had both contrasted the knowledge of the historical Jesus and the contemplation of God."1 The Origenist opposition to the Anthropomorphites and desire for prayer without images, together with the traditional doctrine that the contemptation of God does not mean 'Jesus-worship*, would account satisfactorily for Cassian's interpretation of II Cor* v. 16. Later contemplative thought has agreed that while the vision must be conditioned by meditation upon the earthly life of Christ, the meditation becomes in fact impossible during the actual period of prayer. Since the will and the intellect are directed to God, all discursive thought becomes a distraction : and hence even thoughts about the Cnicihxion divert the intellect from its simple concentration, though meditation upon events and incidents of the earthly life ofJesus continues outside the time of contemplation. Some may therefore argue that Cassian's recommendation to pass from the earthly life is a wholesome element in all contemplative teaching. Yet these later formulations of this experience have been made in centuries when the danger of Neoplatonist negation was less pressing. It would be more satisfactory to find evidence in Cassian that the lite of prayer is based rather upon the revelation of the Gospel than upon the natural mysticism of the heathen. The principal evidence that contemplation in Cassian is not a formless vacuity is found in three related tacts : his attitude to the Scriptures, the offices of the monastic rule, and the anti-Nestorian work on the Incarnation* 1

Coll. x. 6, De Inf. m. 3, where the language is technically Monophysitc, * Völker uses the word Durchgangsstadium of ChrBMnysticïsiïi in Origen, pp. Ï09-10. For Evagrius cf. (Basil) Ep. vra, 7.

150

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION fi. SCRIPTURE

Cassian was admitted by Prosper to be 'outstanding in the study of holy writ \ T Following the Egyptian custom, he had memorized a great part of the Scriptures and advised his monks to follow his example. The Scriptures are the very words of God, we cannot doubt diac they are true: they are the vehicle of salvation, * saving riches*, 'saving food** + 0 good Jesus*, he soliloquized, *what weight there is in thy words! For thine they are when 1 spoken of thee by thine own.' He regarded Scripture partly as a storehouse of texts, partly as a medicine for the cure of wandering and sinful thoughts. But Conference xrv proves that Scripture is more than either of these. Abbot Nesteros discourses upon 'spiritual knowledge*, spintalis scientiar which represents the Cassianic equivalent of gnosis. This spiritual knowledge proves to be the deeper understanding of the Scriptures and ceaseless meditation upon them. Meditation upon Scripture is equated with gnosis, and is thus an indispensable background to contemplation ; in some passages he almost identifies Scriptural meditation with the contemplation of God. In Coll. xiv. 8. i, Nesteros uses ΟΕωρητική, which elsewhere refers to the contemplative life, to signify the spiritual knowledge of rhe Scriptures. There is none of the difference later developed between meditatio and contemplation You should show yourself diligent, indeed constant, in the reading of Scripture until continual meditation fills your heart and forms you as it were after its likeness; while you make out of it in some way an ark of the covenant, having within two tables of stone, which are the two testaments eternal and sure ; and a golden, pot that signifies a pure and sincere memory prest^cving with continual carefulness the manna hidden within it, the manna of the everlasting and heavenly sweetness of the spiritual meaning and the bread of angelst the rod of Aaron, too, 1

Contra Coll. TL I. * De Im. τν. 6. τ (Gibson). In his interpretation of Scripture, like all Origenists, he is Alexandrian rather than Antiochene in outlook; cf. CoU. xrv. 8 with Dr Pratcipüs IV, 2, 4 ft 3 E.g. by Richard of St Victor, Ben. Maj. l, 3^4, where meditation is the consciously intellectual process whereas contemplation, 19 1 pure act of the soul. 1 in eogitatione evagario, in meditadone inveatdgatiû, in contemplatione adniiratio.1 151

JOHN CASSIAN

which represents the saving standard of our supreme and true High Priest Jesus Christ, which for ever buds with the freshness of immortal memory.. *, All these are guarded by two Cherubim, the fulness of historical and spiritual knowledge.1 There is thus a union in his thought between meditation upon the Scriptures and the contemplation of God* Hence comes the need for memorization, bringing with it a capacity for continual meditation and therefore a Scriptural undercurrent to contemplation. The word of God, stored within the mind and sometimes studied almost unconsciously, begins to present to the soul new meanings and to deepen its understanding. It must be 'laid up in the heart, and deeply noted, and thoroughly seen and handled',* The study of Scripture draws on the soul and forms it after the divine likeness, and the soul as it grows in true and spiritual knowledge is able to understand more deeply the mysteries hidden wirhin the Bible. Where gnosis possesses so Scriptural a significance and where there is a Scriptural background to intellectual vision, the contemplative is usually on safer ground. For he is contemplating not the limitless Absolute, the ocean of being that amounts to zero, the infinity that cannot be contemplated, but the finite revelation of God in the earthly life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the historical events leading to and from that life* Therefore it is likely that Cassian is not concerned with the object of contemplation because he assumes that the object is the God of Scripture, the hving, acting God of the Old and New Testaments, removed from the negations of eastern mysticism. This view is supported by a consideration of the daily offices which he was seeking to introduce into the monastic routine of southern Gaul. His coenobites were to Uve in a context of seven offices each day, offices at which the Scriptures were regularly read and the psalms regularly recited. If his prayer is expressed in and through the framework of the canonical services of the Church, the contemplative listens to the Gospel and worships with the psalter, and therefore his prayer is guided and conditioned 1

Coll. xrv. io. 2-j. ' Coll. xrv. II. i. 13. 3. This chapter anticipates the 'nosegay' of de Sales. Tj2

THE LIFE Ο ί CONTEMPLATION

by the revelation of God in Christ. In his two monastic works Cassian rarely touches upon the Passion of the Lord ; but significantly the passages where references to the Passion occur most frequently arc those in which he is describing the institutes of the offices. The sixth hour is the appointed time of worship because then 'the spotless sacrifice, our Lord and Saviour, was offered up to the father, and ascending the Cross for the salvation of the whole world, made atonement for the sin of mankind'. Similar 1 reasons are adduced for the other offices. But the argument, if it stood by itself, would be rickety; for since the offices are primarily for coenobites, the references to the Passion in the Institutes might only mean that a devotion to the incarnate Life was necessary for the inexperienced souls still in the way of purgation. 7. DE

INCARNATIONE

Cassian played neither a momentous nor a creditable part in the Nestorian tragedy. The De Incamatione was written in 430, pardy to advise Pope Celestine on doctrinal opposition to Nestorius, who had been elevated to the see of Constantinople in 428, pardy to proclaim to the Latin west the damnable nature of the new heresy. Historians can describe the controversy without more than a bare reference to the treatise from Marseilles* We shall therefore describe events leading to and beyond the Council of Ephesus in 431, but only so far as a knowledge of them is important for the understanding of Cassian himself« Since the final setdement of the Arian controversy at the Council of Constantinople in 381+ agile Greek minds had turned from reflexion on the doctrine of God to follow the example of Apollinarius of Laodicea in probing and exploring definitions and safeguards in Christology, The Christian Church had with the promulgation of the 'Nicene* Creed declared in official formulae that Jesus is at once God and man. No Platonic thinking can conceive of God as other than impassible (άτΐοφήί.) and absolute, the supreme being who can have no direct contact with temporal suffering and human mortality. Jesus was God, who is impassible, ColL X, 11 shows the contemplative use of the psalter as prayer. Scriptural ustificariûni of the third, sbtth and ninth hour probably descend from Cyprian, De Oratione Domini 34-j, Tertulhan, De Orot. 25. J

153

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CASSIAN

and yet so passible a man that he suffered death upon a cross. How then can the two opposed natures—impassible Divinity and passible humanity—be linked in one Person? This is the theological question at the root of the NcstoHan�Monophysite controversy. By 428 some methods of stating the union of the natures had been rejected, and others were suspect: but since no terminology had yet won universal acceptance, Nestorius*s own attempts at expression were not necessarily heretical because they diverged from the language customary in other parts of the Church. But the new Patriarch knew less of diplomacy even than John Chrysostom. After making numerous enemies by countenancing refugees from the heavy hand of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, and by repressive measures against the sects, he proceeded to question publicly the propriety of applying to Mary the word 1 Theotokos, Mother of God, a title hallowed for many years in popular devotion. Instead of advocating some alternative formulation of the right Christology (as he held it) he unwisely began with a negation which proved itself liable to violent misunderstanding. This was in no sense an attack upon Mariolatry. The point at issue was whether Christians could say *God was born* (as Theotokos implied) or 'God has suffered*. Nestor LUS argued that these expressions infringed the impassibility of God by making Divinity liable to the earthly conditions of human birth, and caused an erroneous mixture of the two natures in Christ; that Theotokos ascribed to the Divinity what could properly be ascribed only to the humanity* He feared the popular inclination to think of the human nature as so swallowed by the flood of Divinity that the earthly life of Jesus might be reduced to a narrative of a divine being whose sufferings and temptations and death possessed neither reality nor redemptive power. By later Chalcedonian standards he was orthodox in intention though his terminology was unusual. He preached one Christ in two natures : and although he sometimes used the dangerous word 'conjunction' (σονάψ£ΐα) to describe the union of the natures, he never employed the metaphor 1

The translation 'God�bearing' fits the Greek better (Bethtuie�Baker, Christian Doctrinet p. 261 a. 2). But in popular demotion it carried the sense of Mother of God. Cassian translates u by mater L>ei.

154

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

of the union between a man and his wife, advocated by his former teacher Theodore of Mopsuestia ; other passages in his works 1 prove that he intended a real union. To the Antiochene school of theology in which Nestorius had been trained, Theotokos meant that Mary had given birth, not only to a Person who was God, but to the nature of God—which was blasphemous. Nestorius argued that expressions like 'God was born' or 'God suffered' involved the theory that the two natures, Divinity and humanity, had been amalgamated and mixed into a new single nature of Christ* To avoid this danger, one should not postulate of the Divinity any title or attribute proper to the humanity, nor vice versa* For example, titles like 'God' and ' Logos ' should be confined to the divine attributes and activities of Christ; * our high�priest' or 'the suffering one* should be confined to him in his humanity. Some titles are mixed—'Christ', " Son of God', *Lord', * Saviour 9*—and could be applied to either 1 Divinity or humanity* So for Theotokos he preferred Christotokost 'Mother of Christ', or Theodochos, 'God�receiving*. His more sensible opponents believed that the dangers which he feared were unreal. His more scandalous or more ignorant opponents—the majority—seized upon his denial of Theotokos to prove that he intended to deny the Divinity of Christ. If Mary is not Theotokos, they argued, she must have given birth to a mere man. Early in 429 a certain Eusebius displayed a placard in Constantinople accusing Nestorius of reviving the third�century heresy of Paul of Samosata, who was alleged to have represented Jesus as a man who had achieved Divinity: and popular rumour in the city gave this theory—plausible only if the real doctrine was unknown and catch�phrases were repeated from mouth to mouth—more credit than it was worth. Nestorius in no way bowed to the storm. He circulated sermons in which Theotokos was condemned, sending them with covering letters to Pope Celestine at Rome. The Pope's principal difficulty lay in understanding the theological distinctions of a foreign tongue. Where could he find the theologian capable of advising 1

Amann in DTC s.v. Nestorius, p. 145. Even Cassian uses a Biblical simile of the union of man and wile to describe the union (De Inc. V. 12). a Amann, ibid. p. 142. Γ55

JOHN CASSIAN

him and of stating the western doctrine in a manner worthy of the see of St Peter ? There was Augustine, indeed ; but after recent events Augustine was perhaps regarded not too enthusiastically at Rome, while the Vandal menace soon made communications with the African Church perilous and uncertain. Celestine's archdeacon, the future Pope Leo, must have been intimate with Cassian twenty years before during his sojourn in Rome, for Cassian can address him in terms of close friendship : 'My revered and beloved Leo'. 1 Leo recognized that this bilingual ascetic, who had himself suffered in an eastern theological crisis, would be the ideal theologian for countering Nestorian teaching for the benefit of western minds. There seems to have been no suggestion that Cassian should direct his theological work to the east, as a Roman make-weight in the Greek controversy. Otherwise the De Incarnatione would doubtless have been written in Greek, The work is rather designed fox Celestine himself and for the ordinary western Christian, to counteract any Nestorian teaching or rumour that might percolate into Latin theological circles. If he was to descend into the arena of controversy, he would descend indeed* From the first the work is stained by the violent abuse customary in the ecclesiastical brawls of that age. Nestorius is a pestiferous serpent and a dragon in his tortuous workings, he is a monument of raving perversity. For Cassian accepted at its face value the popular idea of Nestorianism. He has the very argument that since Nestorius has refused to call Mary 'Mother of God', he must be denying her Son's Divinity.1 He accuses Nestorius of teaching that Christ, born a mere man {homo solitarius or homo solus) had by the right exercise ofhis free will attained such righteousness that God came to dwell within him; 3 and on these grounds he attempts to damn Nestorius with the Pelagian name, by showing that Nestorianism holds the place in Christology which Pelagianism had held in the realm of human ethics. The imaginary connexion between Pelagius and Nestorius is pushed to the point of absurdity ; in vi. 14. he argues that Nestorius 1

De Inc. praef. 1. The emperor invited Augustine to the Council of Ephesus, but the messenger learnt on arrival in Africa of Augustine's death: cf Liberarus, Breviarium $, 1 De Inc. m. 12. 5. * Ibid. v. 1-3.

136

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is falling into even greater heresy than his predecessor. Pclagius, though he regarded Christ as nothing but die teacher and example of mankind, had at least allowed him to have attained to be God in the Resurrection; whereas Nestorius, by separating the Person of the Word from the person of Jesus, could not allow Christ to be God even after the Ascension, since the Persons are separate for eternity. It makes pathetic reading, this passionate refutation of doctrines which his antagonist condemned as vigorously as he did* There would be piquant irony in it, if there were not tragedy* For Cassian's language is so careless (by Cyrillian and later orthodox standards) that in certain of his phrases he is nearer to Nestorius than to Cyril of Alexandria.1 He speaks indeed with vigour of one Person in twin substances, but Nestorius speaks no less vigorously. He uses more or less the same phrases as Nestorius to define the mode of union ; he speaks of God being born in man,a even of God suffering together with man. J He uses the significant words *divinitatem cum Domino Iesu Christo natam''' almost as though the conjunction excluded a real unity of Person. Other phrases were regarded in later ages as Nestorian—e.g* homo dominicusj Nevertheless, there are no grounds for accusing him. of Nestorianism. Language was then undefined, and Cassian was not an accurate thinker who would assist in its definition. Trained in the east, he was unaccustomed to Latin theological formulations. Misunderstanding the problem, he failed to attempt any perspicuous definitions, and his language wanders as haphazardly towards the Monophysites as to the Nestorians.* The use of some of his terms could be paralleled in other writers of the patristic age, homo dominkus being used frequently by Augustine, Epiphanius, sometimes by Apollinarius and Athanasius.7 1

Amann, DTC, coL ίθθτ ' Si l'evequc d'Alexandrie avait eu entre les mains le De Incamatione de Catien, il n'eut pas hésité a le classer parmi les productions de l'esprit ntstorkrL* 1 De Inc. vi. 20. 2; cf. IL 3. 4. 3 Ibid. vi. 22. ι. 4 Ibid. π. ΰ. 2 ; hominem natum cum deo (v. 10. 4). 3 Ibid, vr 5, t, vi, 22. H Coli Xl, 13. 6. Cf. kindred phrase*, c homo urütus deo1 (De Inc. nr 3. 3, v. 7. 6, v. 10. 3), 'homo ^usceptus' {π. j . 4), * De Inc. in. 3. 5: absorta per divinam maiestatern innrrnitate cqrporea. T Kidd n. 295. Augustine later withdrew it, in Retract, l. ig. IÎ7

JOHN CASSIAN

Before he reached the end of the work, however, further documents arrived from Rome to give him a somewhat clearer picture of Nestorius's own teaching. And one point of theology which he raises proves that if he had had more information, if he had been less content to accept the mob estimate of Nestorianism, he could have shown himself a theologian. Arguing the communicatio idiomatum, that the union of the natures in the one person of Christ allows us to ascribe to one nature what in fact is proper to the other, and that hence Theotokos or *God suffered ' are valid modes of expression, he draws attention to the grammatical figure synecdoche., under which the whole of a thing may stand for a part, or a part may stand for the whole. Qumtilian1 had given the example from Livy, 'The Roman was victorious1, where the singular stands for the plural * Romans*. Cassian quotes John i* 15 : 'The man (vir) that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.' If this is taken literally, how could a matt he before him and yet after ? If it refers to the Logos, then why is he described as a man ? Hence the synecdoche consists in describing by the partial truth man the whole truth of the Incarnate Christ in his two natures, divine arid human. Therefore whatever is ascribed to Jesus Christ is ascribed to the whole Person in his two natures: and in this way it is right for Christians to speak of God as suffering or of Theotokos.1 This argument still holds some validity against the criticism of Nestorius, It is one of the few ancient arguments to do so since the discovery of the Book of Heracleides and the rehabilitation of Nestorius by Loofs and Bethune-Bakcr early in the twentieth century. With this important exception, however, the De Incarnatione may be disregarded as an anti-Ncstorian work, Cassian had misunderstood his antagonist; we must turn to discover the reason. The controversy which in 420 filled the mind of the west was not christological but Pelagian* Pelagius and his supporters had been overcome with difficulty and there were still Pelagian bishops at large. A westerner would naturally think of any new heresy in the terms which had already been confronting him. Cassian had shown this inclination to attribute Pelagianism to any heretic in the affair of a Gallic monk Leporius, who had come south from 1 vrn. 6, ao. * Deinen. 23. 158

THE LIFB OP CONTEMPLATION

Treves a few years earlier preaching his own peculiar doctrine. Leporius believed that since the nature of God could not be united with the nature of man, Christ was Httle more than a saint : and he explained, for example, the text ' Why hast thou forsaken me ? ' by supposing that during the Crucifixion the human person had been deserted by the Divine Person who had been accompanying him* Arriving in Marseilles he was challenged by Cassian; but later in Africa he met Augustine, was convinced, and recanted/ Cassian, though he was writing later and was influenced by the impression he had formed of Nestorius, roundly and mistakenly identified Leporius with Pelagius. Perhaps the extreme error in this doctrine of a complete separation of the two natures later caused the west to place the worst interpretation upon the phraseology of Nestorius, and persuaded Cassian in 429 to think that he was again facing a heresy related to Pelagianism, This impression was confirmed by a remarkable failure of tact on the part of Nestorius. Julian of Eclanum and other Pelagians, including Caelestius the chief disciple of the heresiarch, had fled to Constantinople. Instead of confuting the Roman condemnation, Nestorius was unwise enough to write three letters to Rome asking for information upon the case : and these were the same letters in which he announced his condemnation of Theotokos. He even encouraged Caelestius with a friendly letter." The accidental juxtaposition of the new doctrine with an apparent protection of Pelagians certainly caused in the minds of the Roman clergy the association between Pelagius and Nestorius and doubtless transferred this assumption to Cassian. Finally, Cassian was writing without any adequate documents which could show him what Nestorius really meant. The only information which he had received about Nestorius^ teaching was contained in extracts from, or copies of, the four sermons and two 1

His retractation is given in PL xxxi. 1221-2. Augustine's Ep, CCXLX announces the event Co Proculus of Marseilles and the bishops of GauL Amann, in DTC s.v, Leporius, shows that Cassian's estimate of him as a Pelagiarnier [De Inc. L 4 and vn. 2t. 4} is mistaken. The retractatkin is not a condemnation of Pelagian errors; if he had been a Pelagian Augustine would certainly have asked him to condemn Pelagius. The heretics whom the document condemns arc not of the adoptionist type. His error was certainly christological. * ttp. rv; Loots» Nestoriana, p. 172. 159

J O H N CASSIAN

of the letters which the Patriarch had sent to Rome. He had not seen the more abundant information which came to Rome from Alexandria by the hand of Cyril's messenger Posidonius. Perhaps through Marius Mercator» an unofficial Roman envoy at Constantinople who considered Nestorianism an offshoot of Pdagianism, he was aware of the work of Eusebius» who had likened Nestorius to Paul of Samosata*1 Hence he received from Rome insufficient evidence of Nestorius+s own words together with a popular bias which equated the Patriarch with Paul of Samosata and the Pelagians, Reasons for the misunderstanding are therefore not far to seek, Cassian was repeating the charges made by the crowds of Constantinople. But this does not excuse him. The principal plague of patristic controversy lay in the refusal to make any effort to understand the doctrine of the opponent. To begin writing the De Incarnatione when he could dispose of wholly inadequate information was absurd.* Until recent years« Latin Christianity looked upon the Patriarch with eyes biased against Mm through Cassian's misunderstanding. What Cassian understood of Nestorius came down to the west as Nestorianism. The importance of the De Incarnatione does not therefore lie in its controversial aspects. Rather we must tum to it for something which appears incidentally* Cassian's doctrine of the place of Jesus Christ. In the earlier part of the work, he sets out to prove by Scriptural texts that Christ and God are one« that whatever is postulated of one must equally be postulated of the other, and that therefore the Church may righdy apply to the Virgin Mary the title of Theotokos. He examines the evidence of the Gospel accounts of the Nativity» of the prophecy of Isaiah, of St Paul, of the gifts of grace. They are unanimous in their witness that 'The Saviour is God, Jesus is God, Christ is God**3 In the fourth and fifth books he turns to proving that the unity of Christ and God is reai, different in kind from the union between God and his 1

This is ptoved by Schwartz, Ktmziistudien i* pp. 15-16. Schwartz's book is a atpdy of the relations of the earlier documents of the controversy to the De Incarnatione. 3 * Loots» Nestorius, p. 43. De Inc. it, 4. 7, 100

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

saints. In the sixth (hnitating Eusebius at Constantinople) he considers the evidence of the Antiochene Creed, in which Nestorius had been baptized» and finally adduces the judgement of the fathers, many of them Latins, for the benefit of his western readers, Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose« Jerome, Rufinus, Augustine; and, from the east» Gregory Nazianzene, Athanasius» and John Chrysostom his master. Gospel« Epistles, Creed and the fathers, all unite in witnessing that in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that even when he was on earth in the flesh» yet he was present in the hearts of all the saints, and filled the heaven» the earth, the sea, aye and the whole universe with Ins infinité power and majesty; and yet was so complete in himself that the whole world could not contain him....' He is the Creator, with the full majesty of Divinity* It was Christ who talked with the patriarchs and dwelt in the prophets.* The sympathetic reader of the De Incarnatione is struck especially by the glory in the lowliness and humility of God in becoming man. Repeatedly he returns to the divine love which sent the only begotten Son into the world to be the Saviour of mankind, and he blesses the teaching of St Paul because the apostle so often recurs to this thought. All the saints had longed that God might come to save, because they knew that none could free mankind from sin but he who would himself be without sin. The thought, whether of 'the condescension of so lowly a birth* or of *the gracious love of the suffering Lord*3 ought to increase the fervour of Christian devotion. The central act in this humble condescension of God lies in the Passion. Here is the ultimate reason for his fear of Nestorius—he was (he thought) challenging the saving action, watering down the full horror and glory of the Cross» making the Redemption of no effect through his preaching. It is a wounding shock, a plaga and vulnus* to the unconverted ear to hear that God the impassible has suffered* Christ himself spoke to the spectators of his Passion as now he speaks to Nestorius: 1

De Inc. v. 4,ßn. (Gibson). * Ibid. rv. 9. 4, Rid, rv. J ; cf especially 2 : * in hoc totum penitus catholicae sacramentum fidei contineri'; v, 15, n, $. 10. 3

« Ibid, VI. 12* I. c TC

ΙΟΙ

(i

JOHN CASSIAN

* Why do you not confess me as your Redeemer? Do you not recognize God incarnate for your sake?.. « I am your God whom you are lifting up* your God whom you are ci^cifying*T * Nestorius is emascukting the Gospel, therefore Cassian must proclaim the Gospel of the Cross palam^ eonstanter,foniter? must announce the Redemption brought to men through deum natumt deum corporeum^ deum passum, deum &ucißxum+ Cassian preaches Christ crucified as firmly as any Christian disciple. The final words of the De Incarnatione form a noble prayer that love of the divine condescension may fill the minds of all Christian people: Beyond and above all, I pray with all my heart and voice to thee» Ο God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou woiildest fill with the gift of thy love whatever we have written by thy bounteous grace. And because, as the Lord our God thine only begotten Son himself taught us, thou hast so loved this world as to send thine only begotten Son to save the world, grant to thy people whom thou hast redeemed that in the Incarnation of thine only begotten Son they may perceive both thy gift and his love; and that all may understand the truth that for us thine only begotten our Lord and God was born and suffered and rose again» and may so love it that the condescension of his glory may increase our love: and let not his humility lead to a diminution ofhis honour in the hearts of all men, but let it ever produce an increase of love t and may we all righdy and "wisely comprehend the blessings of his sacred Compassion, so as to see that we owe the more to God in proportion as tor our sakes God humbled himself yet lowcr.3 8, THE MONK AND CHRIST Whereas the monastic writings obtained a wide circulation and a high reputation during the Middle Ages, the doctrinal book probably survived only by reason of the reputation of its author among the western monasteries. Great numbers of manuscripts of the Institutes and Conferences exist, so great that the editor Petschenig had to limit his studies to a carefully chosen few* In contrast only seven manuscripts of the De Incarnat tone are known 1

De Inc. n. 3. &.

1

Ibid. m. &. 2; cf in. 10. 3 : ego praedicationem hanc sacrae cruets, praedica� tionem hane dominicae passlonis non solum non imtninuo scd augeo, 3 Ibid. vn. 31 (Gibson), 161

THE LIFE OF C O N T E M P L A T I O N

to be extant. Certainly it is not a salient work in the history of Christology. It is marred by carelessness and by a controversial tone, by immature phrases, by obscure construction and bludgeoning argument* Yet it is possible that without it we might misunderstand Cassian's thought To the modern reader the literature of the first years of monasticism often falls under the condemnation of Luther : â I hate Hieronymus : for he writeth only of fasting* of victual, of virginity... .Truly 1 would not have him for my chaplain/ Basil is no doubt a signal exception; but it remains true that the first-hand authors for the history of primitive monasticism wish either to edify their public with entertaining prodigies, or to instruct their disciples with the aid less of Scripture than of the technical jargon of Greek philosophy. When hellenized savants, unable to escape the categories of their philosophical training, entered the desert, they seem« as a tradition of German scholarship from Mosheim to Rcitzenstein has maintained in extreme or moderate forms, to push the Gospel aside, to submerge it under the weight of Oriental mysticism, to pursue an ideal claiming to be Christian but fundamentally Gnostic. And since it is certain that Neoplatonist-Gnosric ideas influenced directly or indirectly the technique and presentation of asceticism, we have to inquire whether Christ and the Gospel were central or subsidiary to the movement* In the De Incarnatione we possess from the hand of an early ascetic with an Egyptian background an essay afnxming dogma ; and from such an environment we arc grateful for any theological book, even a bad book* The De Incarnatione offers us the standpoint of a man who, though not perhaps typical of the early founders of western monachism« cannot claim the patristic stature of an Augustine or a Basil, and therefore may represent an average outlook, the Christology of the bulk of the ascetic movement, Chrysostom had perhaps developed Cassian's Christology: but only if it were possible sharply to distinguish between the doctrinal and monastic books and to allege that the dogma of the De Incarnatione does not cohere with the asceticism of the Conferences could we then assert that Cassian's attitude to Christ does not descend from the desert fathers. But if we read the Conferences in the light of die De Incarnatione we discover not only that such a distinction is untenable 163

11-2

J O H N CASSIAN

but that the ordinary ascetic of primitive monasticism centred his life upon the Christian Gospel, This then is the real significance of the De Incarnatione* Here is the focal point of the vision of God : In many different ways we contemplate God, For God is known not only in the worship of his incomprehensible essence, a worship promised but in this life hidden : he is seen in the immensity of his creation, in meditating upon justice, in the daily bestowal of his grace; or when with pure mind we consider what he has done through the saints in their several generations; when we marvel in tear and trembling at that power by which he guides and governs the universe or the omniscient eye which pénétrâtes the secrets of the heart; when we think that the sands and the waves are numbered and known by him, the raindrops and days and hours and all past and future time lie within his consciousness; when we gaze in a kind of ecstasy of worship upon his unspeakable mercy which with tireless patience suffers the countless sins committed in his sight; upon his call which in his free pity he bestowed on us though we were not worthy; upon the opportunities of salvation offered to those whom he has chosen; how he so brought us into the world that he gave his grace and the knowledge of the law even from our cradles; how he conquered the enemy and asking only for good will rewards us with eternal blessedness and never-failing rnccd ; and how in the end he was incarnate for our salvation and bestowed the wonder ofhis Sacraments upon all nations. This is from the Conferences,1 not from the De Incarnatione. That which is explicit in the one book is implicit in the others. This is no negative mysticism. If the contemplation of God were different from, and loftier than, the contemplation of the incarnate Life, the Conferences would be a more spiritual book than the De Incarnatione. But Cassian believes that his last book is the most spiritual ofhis three writings; before he has only been within the Holy Place, but now he is entering into the Holy of Hohes*2 The contemplative is dependent upon the Gospel history* Not only is the mortified life of the monk union with the Crucified,3 his humility union with the huinility of the Saviour, his daily life a constant imitation, but even to depart for a moment "from the contemplation of Christ1 is fornication.4 Just as the 1

Coti i. 13. * Inst. TV. 34.

* De Inc. praef. 3. * Coil. i. 13.1; c£ Coti. m. 15. I04

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

divine condescension is prominent in the De Incarnatione, so in the monastic writings is stressed the union through humility and poverty. The Christian must attempt to follow the Lord not in his mighty works but in his humüity and patience.1 Christ leads through temptation»* teaches the way of prayer, guides the judgement of the elders, restrains and conquers the demons, bestows continual grace; men must only practise mortification and spiritual training according to his will» they must abandon their desert austerity to welcome a guest in whom they receive Christ, He who has reached perfect love meditates day and night upon Christ, and if he does not cleave to Christ, he cannot attain the vision of God.3 These are some examples from a mass of evidence that the background of the De Incarnatione underlies the Conferences. By the exhortation to pass from the life of Jesus to the glorified Lord, he meant no more than Paul had meant.4 The monk never rises above his need of Christ. Cassian, and therefore by implication his Origenist and desert tradition, believed that the soul shall behold God by contemplating the revelation of the incarnate Lord* The Gospel has dominated the Hellenism. A chapter upon his doctrine cannot reach its end without 1

Colt. xv. 7. For the 'humilitas Christi, paupertas Christi, luiditas Christi', cf. Inst. rv. 4-5, rv. 37. xn. 25, xn. 27. 1 ; CoU. rv. i i . 1, v. 11. 2. * The study of temptation fascinated the ascetics. In three closely related passages of which the dearest is Coll. xxn. O - ï î (cf, v* $-6, xxrv, 17. S-6) Cassian discusses Christ's temptations. He singularly limits the field of tempratidß. Since by refusing to turn stones intD bread, Christ had repelled the temptation of gluttony, Satan could not tempt him with fornication to which gluttony led, but only with vainglory (4 cast thy self down ') and pride f the kingdoms of the world *), Cassian found this form of stating the common patristic doctrine, so ably assailed by Julian of Bcknum, that the virgin-born Christ was free from the internal struggle of flesh and spirit; moreover, according to Cassian he was able to contemplate the Father throughout the incarnate Life and hence was exempt from the 'mobility ' of mind natural to men; cf. Coil. xxm. S. 3, The chief object of this interest in Christ's temptations always lies in emphasizing the difference between the sanctity of the monk and the immaculate life of Christ. Gut he also desires to claim Christ's victory and aid in temptation. And the underlying idea is the power of Christ to redeem and to prevent temptation bantling the monk. 3 CoU. xxm. 5. 7: bonuni ergo hoc summum dei conspectu frui et Christo iugiter inhaerere, 1 Though he had anthropomorphism in mind at that point, the moderation of the doctrine is proved by the passage on the Transfiguration which immediately follows in Coll. x. 6.

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reference to a famous passage lying at the centre ofhis contemplative thought. As contemplation must concentrate from diversity to unity, so prayer must confine itself more and more to the 'poverty* of a single thought. This single thought will have at first to be repeated consciously in frequent acts of ejaculation: but by practice and by repetition there will come from the thought a continuous state of contemplation in which the mind continues ceaselessly to recollect God. The repeated act of ejaculation is represented by the verse Ό God make speed to save m e : Ο Lord make haste to help m e ' : and his chapter in praise of this verse forms a fitting conclusion to an examination of his doctrine of contemplation. This verse, I say» will be found helpful and useful to every one of us in whatever condition we may be.... I am affected by the passion of gluttony. 1 ask for food of which the desert knows nothing, and in the squalid desert there are wafted to me odours of royal dainties, and 1 find that even against my will I am drawn to long for them. I must at once say: Ό God make speed to save me: Ο Lord make haste to help me1* I am incited to anticipate the hour fixed for supper, or I am trying with great sorrow of heart to keep to the limits of the right and regular meagre tare. I must cry out with groans: Ό God make speed to save me: Ο Lord make haste to help me ' . . . . When Icome to supper, at the bidding of the proper hour I loathe taking food and am prevented from eating anything to satisfy the requirements of nature : I must cry with a sigh: * 0 God make speed to save me: Ο Lord make haste to help me'. When I want for the sake of steadfastness of heart to apply myself to reading, a headache interferes and stops me, and at the third hour sleep glues my head to the sacred page, and 1 am forced either to overstep or to anticipate the time assigned to rest ; and finally an overpowering desire to sleep forces me to cut short the canonical rule for service in the psalms: in the same way I must cry out: * 0 God make speed to save me: Ο Lord, make haste to help me/ Sleep is withdrawn from my eyes, and for many nights I find myself wearied out with sleeplessness caused by the devil, and all repose and rest by night is kept away from my eyelids; I must sigh and pray : Ό God make speed to save me: Ο Lord make haste to help me ' Let the thought of this verse, I tell you, be conned over in your breast without ceasing. Whatever work you are doing, or office you are holding, or journey yon are going, do not cease to chant this. When you are going to bed, or eating, and in ι (Vi

THE LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION

the last necessities of nature, think on this* This thought in your heart may be to you a saving formula* and not only keep you unharrned by all attacks of devils, but also purify you from all faults and earthly stains, and lead you to that invisible and celestial contemplatton, and carry you on to that ineffable glow of prayer, of which so few have any experience. Let sleep come upon you still considering this verse, till having been moulded by the constant use of it, you grow accustomed to repeat it even in your sleep. When you wake, let it be the first thing to come into your mind, let it anticipate all your waking thoughts, let it send you down on your knees when you rise from your bed, and thence send you forth to all your work and business, and let it follow you about all day long*., .This you should write on the threshold and door of your mouth, this you should place on the walls of your house and in the recesses of your heart so that when you fall on your knees in prayer this may be your chant as you kneel, and when you rise up from it to go forth to all the necessary business of life, it may be your 1 constant prayer as you stand. 1

Coll. χ. io [Gibson). The whole passage should be read.

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C H A P T E R VI

ACHIEVEMENT 1. I N F L U E N C E

Cassian died in 433 or soon afterwards, at a time when the ascetic movement had outgrown the antagonism of its rationalizing and ecclesiastical opponents and was acquiring immense popularity from the uninstructed piety of the common people and from the reputation of the great ascetic bishops who had passed under his tutelage--Honoratus and then Hilary at Aries, Eucherius at Lyons* Lupus at Troves among a host of lesser men. The Institutes and Conferences dominated thought at Lérins where we can trace from the sparse evidence a central coenobium whose abbot also directed neighbouring hermitages to which the senior monks were permitted to retire. On the whole the solitary maintained his supremacy« and we find a pupil of Cassian holding that God is peculiarly liable to make his presence known in lonely cells and that he had created the wilderness with the object of providing a home for saints.1 We find in Lérins for the first time in Gaul a community not dependent upon the personahty of a single leader but continuing under a regular succession of abbots* The Rule of Caesarius owes something of its derail to the Institutes: and the prestige of Lérins spread the tempered Egyptian ethos northward to the monasteries of central GauL* From Italy* Spain, and Africa comes similar evidence of his popularity during the two centuries after his death,1 and some believe on flimsy grounds that 1

Eucherius, De Laude Eremi 3. 3. Gennadius u o v . Eucherius quotes Coll. xrv. 1* 3 and 8, 3 in the Formulae, praef Λ comparison of the Statuta of Caesarius with Cassian's work is made by OIphc�Galhaid in DSAM, 2&j�%. The relations between Faustus of Riez, Ruricius of Limoges and Cassian are «udfcd by A. Engelbrtchtin his introduction to CSEL xxi, pp. 71�8, and by Abel, pp. 41�a. De Inc. VL 4. 16 is related to the treatise De Spititu santto 1 pracf, n. 4, attributed to Pascha&ius the Roman deacon: but if is now almost certain that this work was m fact written by Faustus of Riez; cf. Engelbrecht, Studien über die Schriften des Bischofes von Reü Favsius (Vienna, 1880), pp, 29-46, For his influence in central Gaul sec Gregory of Tours, fiiif. Franc, x. 20 and Vitae Pair, xx, 3: Vitae patenta lurensittm 13 3* For Africa Cassiodorus, Dîv. Lect. ao; Fcrrandus {?), Vita FulgentliTai. 23. For Spain Fructuosus αρ. Braulio, Ep, xun; Isidore, Dißerentiae XL. 166; and J. Puis L α

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ACHIEVEMENT

they can trace extensive Cassianic influence upon the early Celtic monasticism in Ireland» passing thither through St Patrick who Serra has noted in a Barcelona manuscript of the ninth century ce. 4-6 of Coll. X ; cf. Bulletin de Théol. Ane. et Méd. v (1946), p. 14. For Italy, Spreitzenhofer, DU Entwicklung, pp. 41 (T.; Cassiodorus and Benedict. The so-called Regula Magistri printed in PL LXKxvm. 943-1052 includes the prologue and the first seven chapters of Benedicts Rule and has other passages of Benedict. In 1931? Dom A. Genestour, who had undertaken to edit a critical text of the Rule of Benedict, anticipated any published proofs or evidence and precipitated a lengthy controversy by announcing that he regarded the Regula Magistri as the source of Benedict instead of vice versa. If this is true, the Master drew directly upon Cassian and in important parts of his Rule Benedict received Cassian at second hand. Before Gcncstout could unfold his reasons, J. Perez y Urbel, in RHE (iQjSK 707-39, 758-64 and M. Alamo in RHE (1038), 740-55 rushed into the arena to produce reasons against and for the theory. While Cavallera in RAM XX ti°39)- 225-36 (cf. 337-68) accepted it, the weight of Benedictine scholarship fell with ardour on the other side; e.g. B. Capelle in Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale (193 o), l l o - ï 8 , 375-8, Justin McCann in Downside Review {1939) * i-21 and (1940), 150-9, C Lambot in Rev. Bén. il (1939), 139-43In 1940 Genestout at last published his long-awaited article (JMMxxi, 51-11 a). His promise that further proofs would follow did not prevent Capelle, Recherches etc. (1940}, 5-32 (cf. RHE (1946), 66-75; R- Webet in Rev. des Études latines (1945), 110-34; L- Brou in JTS (194.7), a 4!i who, however, rests his case upon an acceptance of Frogcr's conclusions about the origins of Prime and Lauds) and A Lambert in Revue Mabillon (1942), ü - 7 9 remaining advocates of Benedict's priority, nor Alamo in RHE (1942), 332-00 and H Vanderhoven, RHE (1944-5), .76-87 continuing to maintain that Genestoutfs theory was in essence correct. In recent times there is some support for the mediating theory of a Quelle, an unknown document upon which both Benedict and the Master drew. For the later stages of the debate cf A Gcncstout, 'Le plus ancien témoin manuscrit de Ta Règle du Maître1, in Scriptorium l (1946-7), 129-42; id. 'Unité de composition de la Régie de S. Benott et de la Règle du Maître d'après leur manière d'introduire les citations de rÉcrifute*, Studia Ansetmiana xvm-xrx (Rome, 1947), 217-72 (both these are criticized by R. Weber, 'Nouveaux arguments pour l'antériorité du Maître?', in Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale xv (1948), 17-26); H. Vandcihoven, "Les phis anciens MSS de la Régie du Maître transmettant un text déjà interpolé*, in Scriptorium 1 (1946-7), 193-212; F. Masai, 'La Règle de S. Benoit et la Regula Magistri\ in Latomus vi (1947), 207-29; F, Cavalier», ' O ù en est la question de la Règle du Maître et de ses rapports avec le Règle de S. Benoît Γ in RAM xaav (1948), 72�9; J. Ledercq '*Autour d'un MS. de la Règle du Maître', in Rev. Bén. ivn (1947), 210-12; A. Genestout, *La Règle du Maître n'tait elle pas digne d'être utilisée par S. Benoit?' in Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benedihtmer-Ordens und seiner Zweige (1947-8), 77-92 ; A. Nuij mHorae Monasiieae (1947), 93-111 ; R. Weber, ' Deux scries paralleles de citations dans la Régie du Maître * in Revue du moyen age latin IV (194B), 129-36—here Weber is moving from his earlier conservatism towards the theory of common dependence; and (spectacularly but not convincingly) M. Cappuyns, "L'auteur de la Regula Magistri: Cassiodore', in Recherches de théologie ancienne et utédiévale xv (i94&)i 209-US ; criticized by P. Volk in RHE (1949), 304-5. IO9

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CASSIAN

is said by his biographers to have studied at Lérins,1 Three factors, however» limited his prestige. No one attributed to him miracles» which in these centuries ensured the swiftest propagation of a name, though not of teaching: and his desire to seem a reporter of Egyptians rather than a theologian in his own right meant that the abbots in the Conferences began to be invoked in ecclesiastical litanies, but that he was personally (he object of no cult, at least outside Marseilles« until later times.4 Secondly his hortatory discursiveness hampered copyists and readers, and from the earliest times created a demand for epitomes* Few sections of his work show much method or restrained reasoning. He wrote as the spirit moved, rriingled practice with theory, dashed after irrelevances» allowed rambling repetitions^ He could not expect his impersonal and abstract theology to compete with the miraculous delights of Sulpicius Severus and the growing tribe of hagiographers as the staple reading for ascetics» And thirdly* although the semi-Pelagian controversy was temporarily dormant, there was enough trouble still simmering to make Augustinians suspicious and to begin requests for modified editions of the Conferences; and these doubts culminated in an unofficial disapprobation by the *Gelasian Decree* (a document probably dating from tie early sixth century) which ranked him with suspect authors like Tertullian« though not with the great heresiarchs.4 Nevertheless both semi-Pelagian and Augustinian writers of the fifth and sixth centuries had read him; and the 1

See Appendix D. * Cf. the litany attributed Co Gregory the Great printed in PL XLDC. 900» in which seven of the Egyptian abbots are invoked in prayer. For cult, cf Gregory, Ep. vi. i i , 3 In Coll. m the planned discussion on the three renunciations merges into an argument on grace and free will; in Coll. vi the problem of suffering leads into a meandering discourse on steadfastness; etc. In Inst, vu the examples of Ananias and Sapphira and Gchazi are all quoted in c. 14» expanded in cc, 23-fj and finally reiterated in c. 30, The epitome of Cassian printed under Eucheriu* in PL L is spurious. F. Diekamp in an article entuled 'Sancti. Eucherii Lugdunensis episcopi epitome operum Cassiani—eine moderne Titelfalschung" in Römische Quartalschriß xrv (ιοοο), pp. 341�55, showed that the Latin text was none other than Montfaucon's Latin translation» made in 1C9S» of a Gieek epitome. * An African bishop Victor produced an expurgated edition of the Conferences (CasôudoMts. De Div. Led. 20}. 170

ACHIEVEMENT

demand for epitomes and expurgation proves that in spite of these disadvantages his ascetical theology was meeting a long-felt need. In Italy» where semi-Pelagianism. never raised the same vehement antagonism and where the Martin saga did not dorninate religious thought» Cassian received his most momentous appreciation» Whereas Cassiodorus. in urging his community at Vivarium to a diligent study of the Institutes and Conferences^ had warned the monks against the erroneous theology of grace, Benedict made no reservations. Immediately after supper, one of the brethren shall read aloud the Conferences, or the Vitae Pattwn, or any other edifying book,1 until the time of Compline. For Benedict regarded the work of previous writers, of Cassian above all, as supplying the monastic teaching for which his Rule was only a frame work- His Rule is but the little rule for beginners» the start of the spiritual life. Those who wish to advance must meditate and study the Bible or the fathers—or ' the Conferences and the Institutes and the Lives of the fathers* and the Rule of our holy father Basil—what use are they but the means of progress for virtuous and obedient monks ?** Dom Cuthbert Buder showed3 how much Benedict owed to Cassian, and he wrote : 'St Benedict was familiär with Cassian's writings» and was saturated with their thought and language, in a greater measure than with any other, save only the holy Scriptures/4 Verbal repetitions of whole sentences are rare, but hints of Cassianic phrases and ideas arc recurrent throughout the seventy-three chapters of the Rule. The degrees of humility; the command to obey even when the impossible is ordered; the renunciation of the will and the system of spiritual direction; the avowal that no one may become an anchorite until he has served many years under the rule of the coenobium ; the corudemnationofthe Sarabaites; practical guidance on the necessity of silence ; the acceptance ofnovices ; punishment— 1

l *«* & fag- 7J. 3 In the 'Index Scriptorum1 ofhis edition of the Rule. Cf. also Sprcitaenhorer, Die Entwicklung, pp. 44-51 ; CapeÜc, *Lcs ccuvrcs de Cassicn et la Règle bénédictine', in Reu. tit. et nun. χιν (1910), pp. 307�10; Spreitzetihofer, Die historiseften Voraussetzungen der Regel des D. Benedict von Nursia (1S93); Albers in Studien u. Mitteilungen z, Gesch. des Benediktiner�Ordens x m (192a), pp. 12�2^ 146�58, 4 Benedictine Monackist», p. 46.

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in these and other matters Benedict is a debtor. Cassian's ejaculation, * 0 God make speed to save me: Ο Lord make haste to help me', is appointed in the Rule to be said at the beginning of officesτ (Cassiodorus also noted and applauded the verse) J* Butler showed that all the iiismictjons in the Rule relating to prayer are to be found in Cassian's Conference nc.3 The incorporation of Cassian's instructions within the Benedictine Rule began the long history of his steady influence upon monasticism. His sway was unlike that of any comparable figure, for it depended in no way on his cult as a saint. A local cult sprang up in Provence during the later Middle Ages; at Marseilles his festival was celebrated on 23 July and at latins a hill was named in 4 his honour. But in spite of the efforts even of Pope Urban V, at one time abbot of St Victor, who caused the words 'Sanctus Cassianus' to be engraved on a silver casket containing his relics,5 the cult always remained local. Apart from the east where his teaching was carried by Greek translations (an honour bestowed upon few medieval Latin works)»* his influence depended always upon the spread of Benedictihism. Manuscripts multiplied in the great religious houses of the west. It is a privilege for a writer to i

Reg. xvru, xxxv. C£ xvn, xmi. The old text also recommends it in Reg, rx. but Butler has shown that this is a later addition by asainulation, 1 Cassiodorus, Expos, in Ps. lxrx. 1 in PL ixx. 402: nan sequendus in omnibus generahter nunc locum facundissimus Cassianus (in décima collatione plurima de eius utüirate disserens) tanto honore concelebrar lit qtridquid monachi assumpserint, sine huius versiculi trina iteration« non inchoetit. quem repetita saepius laude congenunans, nimts utilem probat eius memoriam. * Benedictine Monachism, pp. 62-3, For the conception of theoria in the Middle Ages, cf. Gougaud in RAM m (1022), pp. 381-04. + A. C. Cooper-Marsdin* History of the Elands ofLérinst p. 47. 3 Wiggers, p. 14; cf. Cuper in Acta SS. (July v). pp. 458-9. * Greek translations must have been made as early as the fifth century» as the Apophtnegmata show. Photius. 197, knew of a Greek epitome of Coll. 1» 11 and vn and an epitome of all the Institutes, In PG XXVru. 40 if. there is a Greek epitome of the Institutes, A Greek translation of Coll. I, H, VU, vm was round by K. J. Dyovouniotis in a Meteorite monastery and published in 1913; cf. Rev. Bén. (1913}» Ρ� 477� The treatise De Ckio Vitus attributed doubtfully to Nilus in PG ixxrx. 1430�04 is a summary of the summary of Inst�, x�xu printed in PG xxvm and known as Ep, II ad Castoretn. Cf. S. Marsili in RAM (July 1934), pp. 241�5, Cassian exercised a strong influence upon John Climacus, Scala rv in PG Lxxxviu, ηιη. An ekventh�century Georgian manuscript is mentioned in Anal. Boll, xxxvi (1917)! p. 36. 172

ACHIEVEMENT

be regarded as of sufficient importance for apocryphal works to be attached to his name in the hope of increasing circulation, but this was the fate of Cassian.1 The authority of this pre�Benedictine ascetic was acclaimed by a succession of writers until modern times—Alcuin» Damian, Dominic, Aquinas» Ignatius, de Sales, to mention a few,* The modern Benedictine still looks to him to supply a spiritual commentary upon the work of the author of the Rule, if wc may judge from the eulogy by one learned monk. 1

De spirituali mediana monachl, dosfs tnedica ad exinaniendos anmi ajfectus (a pretended translation from the Greek by the Carthusian Tilmann); Theologica confessio; Ζλ? confiictu vitiorum et vtrUttw» (Pctschenig, CSEL xvn, p. nui). Sec also the honour paid him by the forged Epistola Castorfs. 1 It has been maintained that the influence of Cassian was much smaller in the early part of the Middle Ages: but in view of the scantiness of the sources, the amount of use made of him is interesting, though it is frequently made without acknowledgement: cf. for example the separate circulation of parts of the COM� Jerence$in Braulio, Ep. 43, PL LXXX, 691, VitaEugendi 23 ; Aldhelm, Ep. adCerontium in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents iii 2*9; id. Traclat. de laudibus virginitatis 13, PL LXXXTX. 112; Id. de Öcto PrincipaJUms Vittis, PL txxxix. 281 ff.; Julian of Toledo, Prognost, n, 15 and n. 33, PL xcvi. 481, 493; the anonymous treatise given under Pope Gregory 10 in PL ixxxix. 587, 589; a passage in Heterius and Beatus» Ep. ad Hîpandum 1. 53-4» JPL xcvi. 925, is taken almost verbatim from Coll. 1. 20. 1-3; Theodulf of Orleans. Capif. xxx; Smaragdus, Comment, 8, PL en. 830; ibid. 16, col. 836» though misquoting to suit his purpose; ibid. i8, cot Î37 but through Cassiodorus; ibid. 23, col, 8*55, etc. Smaragdus appears to have the Institutes among a collection of ancient rules, but there is no trace of the Conferences, and in the Dtadema Monacltorttm, PL CIL 593-690, which is composed mainly from Gregory the Great and Isidore, he composes cotlationes to meet the need of the monks in fulfilling Benedict's command to read 'collationes pactum \ thus plainly showing that he has no idea that Benedict was referring to Cassian's Conferences; Vita EigilisT/a; Rabamis, De clericorum institutione o, i<S» PL cvn. 333, mainly copied from CoU, IX, 25 ; cf. n. 20* col. 333* and compare Liber de vblatkme puerorum,col 435-6' with CoU. xvin. 5-Ö; id. Depuritate cordis, PL exit* 12S9ff. from Colt. 1; id. De modopaeniteniiae 23, PL Cxn. 1320 from Coll. xx. S; DE VUüS et virtutibusm. 2, col. 1348 from Colt.v. 16; Ibid. col. 1349; Paul Alvar of Cordova, Ep. rv. 18, PL cxxi. 437-8, using Coll. xrv* 13 ; Ps^Isidore. Quaestiones in veins testamentttm, cf PL LXXXHI, 209 and note; id. Testimonia divinae Scrîpturae et Patrum, PL ixxxm. 1213; De unitaie ealetiae oonsetvanda in Libetti de Uten. 277, 281 ; Peter Crassus, Defenno Henrici IV Regis 4, Libelli de lite 1. 440; Lantranc (?) Aanotatiunculae in nomutllas loannis Cassiani Collationes Patrum, PL CL 443-4. Cassian is suspect for Pelagianism to the ninth century Augustinian Gottschalk, αρ. Hincmar, De praedestinathne 21, On the other side it is mtexesting that the Rule of Grimlaic. PL cm. 575 ft"., though it quotes from 'collationes patrum\ means by this the Apopktkegmata; cf 7» 14, 30, 47. Sec also Olphc�Galliard's article in DSAM s.v. Caasien,

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* Cassian's work was the first considerable scientific exposition ever composed on the spiritual life, and it remains to this day in many respects the finest and the best» and the one that searches most deeply into the human« or at any rate the monastic heart; and the most wonderful thing about it is its actuality and practicality still in this our twentieth century.' * 2. SAINT BENEDICT

The life and Rule of Benedict marked» we have often been told« a new epoch in the history of monasticism: and the fame of the founder of Monte Cassino has eclipsed the reputation of his predecessors and pushed them aside as publicists of an Egyptian tradition found unsuitable for western Europeans* But those who contrast Benedict and Cassian have not always realized that the two writers stand upon dînèrent planes» of which any fair comparison must take account. One was an ascetical theologian, the other an administrator; one sought to expound spirituahty, the other to build a framework for the existing spirituality« Since the Rule would be unintelligible without the Cassianic and Basilian thought behind it» we cannot affirm that the doctrine preached at Marseilles aimed at an erroneous ideal while that of Cassino represented medieval monastic thought at its highest : the critics of Cassian must become critics of Benedict who so largely incorporated Cassianic thought. And the balance has been weighed still lower in Benedict's favour because until recently scholars have insistently read hack into the sixth century the outlook of a later age» The protrdncnt instances of this anachronistic scholarship are seen in the still repeated clichés» that Benedict transformed the monastic ideal by ttirnîng the office into the essential work of the monk, and by changing the sterile Egyptian thought of labour into a quasi-Cistercian conception which inspired the monks to fruitful agricultural work or to the transmission of learning. But if we read in its context the famous phrase 'Let nothing be preferred to the opus deCt and attempt to place ourselves within the sixth century and not within the Benedictinism of a later age, we realize that here Benedict added nothing to Cassian—the order is 1

Butler, Benedictine Monathisnu pp. nr-ia. Cassian's later influence is traced by Olphe-GaHiard in DSAM s,v. Cassien. T74

ACHIEVEMENT

a simple instruction to coenobites, as applicable at Marseilles as at Cassino, that attendance at the omce forms the most important part of their life, not (as the Cluniacs might have understood it) that the office composes the essence of the coenobite's hfe. Far from driving his monks out to the agriculture which Egyptian thought had deprecated, Benedict intended to execute manual labour in the house or garden and only commended agriculture where the cornmunity was compelled.1 The reading ordered is not the hypothetical pursuit of scholarship or classical learning, but a study of the Bible and the ascetical writers; again Benedict has added nothing to what is found in Cassian« The spirit underlying the Rule is that sober spirit in which Cassian instituted the lifo of the coenobites of Apt. The crux lies elsewhere. Cassian had rnaintahied the solitary life as a development beyond coenobitism. Benedict, who had suffered the rigours of an Italian hermitage, deliberately rejected it in favour of the old Pachornian and Basilian thought of the supremacy of the coenobium* He numrnized this revolution by describing his Rule as a 'little one for beginnersT ; and the pedagogical aroma which pervades the regulations, creating* for example, a system of supervision to prevent monks shirking their reading and ordering a periCKÜcal and personal search by the abbot to discover private treasures hidden in the monk's bedding,* establishes the truth that he was writing with his eye upon the youngest and most imperfect. He designed the Rule for the novice and he urged the advanced to the study of Cassian and Basil But the emphasis on 'stability\ on continuing in the monastery till death» has changed the trend of Egyptian thought. The idea of stability was in the air 3 and Benedict was not the first to demand it. Henceforth the Benedictine shall remain a Benedictine and, until the gymnastics of Peter Damian, shall close his mind to the beckoning of the desert. The Rule is the confession of humiHty that no monk ever passes far beyond the novitiate, that everyone in the house will always need the guidance, the demands 1

Reg. 48. But cf. Uli work in Gregory, Dial. 1. 4, Reg. 48. j j , Chapman, Benedict and the Sixth Century, pp, 121-4, But the book must be used with care. Yet the existence of Benedictine recluses at an early date is shown by Gongaud, Ermites et Rectus, pp. 77-5, s

τ?5

JOHN CASSIAN

upon obedience and patience, the moderation and disdpline« of a common life. Cassian had made statesmanlike concessions to the weakness engendered by Gallic constitutions and western climate, hut he had come from an Egyptian-Syrian milieu which must prevent hitn assenting to Benedict's principle * nothing harsh, nothing burdensome'. 1 Benedict had grasped what th& "pneumatics ' of Egypt contradicted, that all men are in truth beginners. It is this recognition which permits the contention that Benedict transformed Cassian by placing the spiritual life more within the context of grace* Not that he directed the soul more explicitly to Christ, Sometimes, it is true, he has changed the significant word to stress the discipleship of Christ: where Cassian urged that 'nothing is to be preferred to charity', Benedict wrote * nothing is to he preferred to Christ*; where Cassian had taught that the first thoughts of temptation must be dashed upon the rock, Benedict altered the exhortation to 'dashed upon Christ'. 3 But we have seen that this discipleship is assumed« where it is not stated, in the Institutes and Conferences. The difference lies in no doctrinal affirmation hut in the respective assumptions about the powers of the human will* Cassian seems to suppose that the struggling monk will often succeed. Benedict expects that he will often fail» that his will can do little if it be not bolstered by external and detailed régulations* Herein he holds his place in the history of monasticism, as the organizer. The principal resource of the weak soul (and Benedict's survey of the asceticism of his era had convinced rum of that weakness)3 consists of habits formed by rules of life sanctioned and maintained by authority* He therefore set out to order every detail of the common practice, from a night-light in the dormitories to the site of the doorkeeper's cell Where his predecessor had been mainly content with exalted generalizations, he entered into the pettinesses which compose the working of a community— rules for offices; the servants in the kitchen; the hours of meals and work; the weight of bread and vegetables and the quantity of 1

Reg. proL Coll xvi, 7 and Reg. 72 and 4, 21; Inst. ντ. ij, 2 and Reg. ρτοΐ. and 4. 30; cf. Jerome, Ep. xxn. 6* J Se« Benedict's experience related in Gregory, Dial. n. 3. 1

I7<5

ACHIEVEMENT

wine; the baths; even the danger of knives by the bedside could not escape his vigilance* Where Cassian had sermonized, Benedict legislated* A great lawgiver is always endowed with two qualities -^the capacity to enact unambiguous and simple statutes and the foresight to deal with the worst that may happen* Both these qualities mark the Rule. It was perhaps useless to close the eyes to the abuses of the age: but Cassian's desire to edify, to uncover a Utopian picture of true asceticism, has vanished before a sometimes grim facing of reality—'grave scandals'* 'tyranny'* + if the whole congregation be vicious*. Where one had painted the ideal, the other looked squarely at the facts* The contrast is heightened when we compare the simple regulations with the chaos of Institutes sent to Apt. The sermonizer urged that the monks would suffer spiritually if they travelled far from their cell: the legislator sought to obviate the need for travel by making the community selfsufficient, setting up a well, a mill, a garden* to prevent recourse to the outside world. (The self-contained community adrnirably met the needs of anarchic economy during the invasions, but this was not Benedict's design«) The sermonizer exhorted the novices to be faithful: the legislator attempted to ensure foithfalness by increasing the solemnity ofadmission* demanding a promise before all thti brethren, a signed request to be placed on the altar* and a prostration at the feet of each of the monks.1 Because Cassian was a preacher we cannot assume his administration, about which we possess so httle information, to have been incompetent. But influenced perhaps by the custom prevailing in the early fifth century whereby communities maintained private usages enacted by the founder» and by the vitiating creed that a cornmunity was but a training school, he failed to publish and propagate his customs in the form of a rule. Although some have held that Benedict was writing only for his own family of monks, certain passages,1 in which he contemplates its use in other communities, make it certain that he expected and hoped for the spread ofhis own practice* The admitiistrative ability latent in the Rule, revealed partly in 1

E.g. 64: 'episcopi *d cuius diocesim pertihet locus ipse1;, and see Chapman, Benedict, p. 19. ClC

T77

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JOAN CASSIAN

the absence of rhetoric from the Latin (for the decline of style during the fifth century cannot he regarded as the cause of this severity when in Benedict's age Ennodius was publishing his tortuous pomposities), becomes still more prominent in the attempt to find a constitution. Cassian had left the problem of government almost untouched. Benedict enjoined a quasi-absolutism of the abbot, who, accepted as the representative of Christ, had to consult his monks but was not bound to follow their advice« and stood as the head of a hierarchy of officials appointed by himself* The absolutism was restrained in theory by the abbot's own knowledge that his rulings must conform to the commandments of God and that he must give account to God for the souls of his children, in practice and more effectively by the portrait of an ideal abbot drawn in the same Rule which was accessible to all and which regulated all other provinces of the common hfe. Although one weakness remained as a source of future controversy, the provision for electing an abbot*1 the monastery now possessed a government of which the nature and powers had been delineated with a vivid lucidity. Thus Evagrian spirituality as interpreted by Cassian received a trame in which it was bequeathed to the Middle Ages. An awareness of Benedict's ability should not obscure the recognition that he could have achieved httle without the inner analysis of ascetical method already proffered by Cassian and Basil, and that in one sense the principal influence of the Rule upon monastic thought has been exerted by its successful transmission of the revised spirituality descended from Egypt. 3. ACHIEVEMENT

A critic can easily remark the defects in Cassian's work. His Egyptian bias in favour of anchoritism, accepted by almost all the ascetic leaders of the period, would not admit the communal organization in which his lofty spiritual ideals might be brought to earth and hammered out in practice. His doctrine on monastic vows and on stability was either non-existent or obscure* The 1

Reg. Ö4: 'hie constituatur quern sive omnia conçois congregatio secundum rirnorcm Dei, sive efiam pars qiiämvis parva congregationis saniore consflio elegit/ The phrase 'saniore consihV afforded numerous loopholes. I78

ACHIEVEMENT

coenobium was inadequately organized. He preached a blind obedience to the elders, but whom did the elders obey? What status had the abbot? The haphazard nature of his practical instructions, in which he was uninterested, was paralleled by a lack of clarity in his ascetical theology. He came to Gaul, perhaps, through the accidents of three exiles, and since any ascetic from Egypt was expected to unfold spirituality to the inexperienced west, he found himself a writer and a guide perhaps by circumstances rather than intention. Essentially an interpreter of tradition rather than an original thinker, he suffered from the confusion of the tradition which he was transmitting. Primitive spirituahty, the intellectualism of the Origenists, the sober moralism of a Basil or a Chrysostom—all the diverse elements which influenced his background had never been fully assimilated into an ordered unity of thought. The relations of meditation, contemplation, gnosis, prayer, were never clearly defined. In the process of transmission he perpetuated some of the more dubious doctrines of Origenism, especially the rigid distinction between the active and contemplative lives, and the unnatural idea of a life angelic in its physical as well as its spiritual manifestations. He did not avoid the incessant temptation of the ascetical theologian to conceive progress as advance up a ladder and so to give the impression that God is far away behind lofty barriers. Life in the world is not mentioned» The ascetic's progress moves towards a single goal, contemplation, and does not return thence* The modern test of true contemplation, * effect upon hfe', is thus excluded in favour of the unreliable test of spiritual experience; and the ' mixed Hfe', part contemplation part action* advocated by Augustine and Gregory, gives way to the pure mysticism for which history and society are irrelevant. Was it right to let the world fall to its destruction without lifting a finger? When the modern reads of the decline of the western Empire, of the barbarian contemporaries of Cassian—Alaric, Athaulf, Stilicho, Gaiseric, Wallia—during those years when the political and social fate of Europe was being decided, he cannot avoid the question whether the ascetic leaders were justified. Secular society might crumble, and yet leave Cassian and Salvian unmoved or iininterested : for secular society was vanity. It is true that a different view would have demanded 179

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JOHN CASSIAN

an impossible revolution in the philosophical and religious background. It is true also that many Gallic bishops, now the chief upholders of decaying civilization, were trained in Provence. But anyone who reads the natiseatmgly self�interested appeal to the ascetic life in the last chapter of the Conferences cannot help feeling that love of the neighbour may demand a wider interpretation than Cassian was prepared to acknowledge. This criticism is no doubt a trite expression of the trite objections of a Protestant theology which failed to understand the medieval ideal and conventionally thought of monks as representatives of a genetically Pelagian and uniform squalor* In its extreme form the charge failed to observe the facts of history and the theological and philosophical environment of the medieval age. Nevertheless, it contains a latent truth« The fourth and fifth centuries were witnessing not only the political disintegration of the western Roman Empire, but the doctrinal disintegration of the primitive notions of the Church* In Cassian's generation the doctrine of the Body was maintained with haunting beauty in the Augustinian exegesis of ' the whole Christ' ; but even in Augustine we see the shadow ofthat distinction between the visible and invisible Church which the influx of converts during the fourth century and the consequent assimilation of * Christian1 to 'citizen* had perhaps rendered inevitable* In the west, when Church and State had become co�extensive, the corporate sense, which had in part depended upon the naked opposition between Church and society and the protest of the Church against society, begins to fade, perhaps never fully to be recovered until the recognition of the modern age that Christian and citizen are no longer synonymous terms* The expanding wedge driven by a swollen hierarchy between bishop and congregation, the steady clericalization of the Church which in the west advanced as lay education regressed, the transformation of the bishop from pastor of the town into administrator of the extended western diocese, combined to hasten the end of the primitive idea of a Christian congregation. The antagonism of the early Church to secular society was replaced by the protest of the ascetics against a society co�extensive with the Church. The monks furthered the disappearance of the early notion of a congregation inseparable from its bishop. They were ι Ko

ACHIEVEMENT

in the Catholic Church, the élite of the Church, yet associated in no local community. And this disintegration of the older corporate sense of the Church, which would slowly be replaced in the west by a more external and social unity dependent on the name and reputation and inheritance of Rome, was influenced by this very spirituahty transmitted to the west by Cassian* It is impossible to find in the documents of the Egyptian desert any significant doctrine of the Church as the Body of Christ. The monks were not protesting against clericalism and hierarchy and sacramentalism, as Workman thought to maintain. But their deepest thought upon the nature of the search for perfection left the visible Church on one side. The works of Evagrius, of Palladius, of Cassian, are almost without qualification individualist. The hermit doctrine that the society of men impeded union with God was not mamtained consistendy and absolutely by the whole ascetic tradition. But it lay deep even underneath many of the coenobitic ideals which Egypt had begotten* So long as the monks were tied to the Incarnation, as Cassian was tied, they could not finally lose the roots of the doctrine of the Body;1 but the Egyptian search for God is the search of the individual soul for individual union. The Holy Spirit is conceived as mdwelling; but the balance is weighed far down upon the individualist side, so that the thought of indwelling in the Body is nothing compared with the thought of 'pneumatic* mdwelling in the individual souL Egypt created the background for the devotion of * the alone to the alone1 which passed through the Conferences* through the mystical side of Augustinianism, and (with a different emphasis) through the Neoplatonizing influence of the pseudo-Dionysius, to the individualism of The Imitation of Christ and so much of late medieval devotion. It is true that the monks attended the Eucharist; if they were coenobites they worshipped through the offices* But the later Benedictine interpretation of the phrase opus dei does not prove that the Egyptians understood corporate worship. Cassian's treatment of worship is additional evidence for a fundamental Egyptian neglect of any doctrine of the Body, For him Eucharist and offices are aids in the lone pursuit of perfection. The Eucharist • See especially De Inc. v. I i : 'et caro ecclesiae caro Christi esr.. .,1 i8i

JOHN CASSIAN

was a vehicle for the manna from heaven, a medicine for sin, a cure of fornication; nothing in the Egyptian sources proves that it was more than these* The offices trained the coenobite to pray, led him upon the road towards higher forms of prayer* The unceasing prayer of the contemplative transcended the intermittent psalmody of common worship. Cassian allowed Terce, Sext and None only as props for the inconstancy of human nature ; and his lack of solid interest in the regulation of offices confirms the undisguised evidence of his conviction of the primacy of contemplative prayer* Is it fanciful to see in Egyptian thought the distant ancestor of a modem and popular preference for private prayer over corporate worship? Certainly we can detect the ancestry of modern manuals of mental prayer where the authors exclude the worship of the Body from their consciousness. The phrase * mental prayer* offers another clue for our diagnosis. Evagrius had conceived worship as a pure activity of noust the goal is achieved when the mind perceives God intuitively and shines like a jewel in the divine light. Cassian's fervid desire to elirninatc 'mobility of mind* shows the same foundation* We do not contest that if a human life is devoted to God, the mind must be controlled and concentrated. But the Origenists believed that worship was a pure act of the rnind; not the mind as the guide and guardian and representative of the whole man, but the mind as conceived in antagonism to the earthly elements in human nature* Worship foe the Egyptian was not so much the worship of the whole man as the worship of the highest part of him; and only when the mind had passed beyond the body into * ecstasy ' (as they understood the term), had it attained the perfect worship. Thus the Church and its corporate worship were not dismissed, not forgotten; but instead of an integral part of the Christian life, bound with the Gospel, they were reduced to a compulsory convenience for the individual. For the main desert tradition corporate worship was necessary. But it was not so much necessary because it was the central activity of the Body of Christ as because sick human nature could not dispense with it in the quest for apathy, for gnosis, for perfection. These are trends and potentialities. But they have a history : *The more mental our worship, the more adequate to the nature 182

ACHIEVEMENT

of God** Is it chance that these words were written by the Quaker William Penn?1 When we value the contribution of Egypt to Christian thought, the concept which the Egyptians made dominant in the Church, that the end of life is worship, we must not forget that their doctrine of worship had perceptibly altered the doctrine of the offering of the whole man in the Body of Christ, Yet neither historian nor theologian can afford to neglect the cccstructive contribution of Cassian to Christian thought He gave a sudden impulse to liturgical study and form, preparing the way for the full system of offices: the Church still begins every oßce with the versiele Ό God make speed to save us' because Cassian wrote in praise of it, {But he praised the singular form, 'save me'.) His leadership of the semi�Pelagian party rendered service in avoiding the harshness of predestinarianism and all the troubles which full acceptance of Augustinianism would have created. But these are mcidentals* He holds his place in Christian history because he set western monasticism upon sane lines and because he is the first guide to spirituality in the spiritual tradition of the western Church. A Gaul of 410, before the arrival of Cassian at Marseilles, would have seen a peculiarly one�sided picture of the ascetic movement. Rumour from Egypt would bring accounts of the desert with the emphasis laid mainly upon thaumaturgy or undirected and exaggerated austerities: and the impression thus formed would be abundandy confirmed by the stories of Martin which Sulpicius Severus was putting into circulation. With humility and sobriety, with a sense of humour and perspective, Cassian gave the west a straightforward account of the real aims and objectives of the movement. Sanity is his characteristic. This exile from the east might have been an advocate of sell^rnutilation like Ammonius, a competitor like Macarius, a visionary like the author of the homilies* Even in the one matter where the ascetics were most likely to lose their mental stabihty his balance only quivered—where Nilus said "The glance of a woman is a poisoned arrow',3 Cassian could tell of retributive justice falling upon Abbot Paul for rurming away 1 4

Same Fruits of Solitude, p* 507. De Qcio Spir. 4* 1K3

J O H N CASSIAN

from a chance encounter* Treating the eastern extravagance with a truly Roman common sense, he was a worthy predecessor of the Benedictine tradition. Christian thought took a long stride between Evagrian and Benedictine spirituality. And this h curious, because one of the founders of Benedictine spirituaUty based himself upon Evagrius. Latin temperament, the temperament which refused to allow pillarsaints, was one factor; another was the translation of the ascetical terms into Latin words without the philosophical associations of the Greek. But the soundness ofCassian, his perception that Gauls were not Egyptians and that the Origenism of the desert could not suit Latin souls and Latin bodies without modification, contributed to the difference in ethos between eastern and western spirituahty* Cassian liirnself helped to perpetuate Origenist spirituality in the east: his Latin, retranslated into Greek without Evagrian terminology, continued less philosophically the Alexandrian tradition* His reputation in the east was always high; and it is interesting that in two out of the very few Russian books upon spirituality recendy translated into English, Cassian is recommended as a high authority.1 Ln Greek thought he was interpreted in the light of eastern tradition. In the west there was no tradition of spirituality before him: and therefore words like lapathy* and 'deification* remained exceptional in western EuropeA wider view must see this work in the context of developing Christian thought* In one sense the Origenist conception of the spiritual fife, with its primary thought of the urge of man towards God rather than the gift of God to man, represents a victory for the principle called by Nygren eros. This is not to say that the ascetics did not rest upon the Gospel. The Church did not borrow asceticism from Greek philosophy—the New Testament is penetrated with the idea of 'train thyself' (I Tim. iv. 7). But when Christianity was forging ahead among the educated classes, when Clement and Ôrigen were claiming the right to rationalize about the faith by using the methods and sometimes the vocabulary of Greek philosophy, it was soon natural and inevitable that the philosophical terminology of Greek asceticism should be used to 1

Vie. Pilgrim Ctmtintws His Way (tr, French), S.P.C-K, (ÏO43), p, 24; I. de Bcausobrc. Russian Letters of Direction ι8&�ί86οΎ Dacre Press (i944)t P� *0+,

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explain and develop Christian asceticism: and hence the Christian ideas of mortification came to be expressed by the Origenists in increasingly non-Scriptural language. Provided that the jargon of philosophy adequately expressed or protected the Scriptural faith, as with homoousios, its use might explicate the faith more fully to a generation which understood the Hellenist type of thought. The terms ascesis, apathy, gnosis, contemplation, deification, must face the test of whether they express and are consistent with Scripture or whether they are adding some new clement which may not reasonably be deduced from Scripture. But the ascetic was not always aware of the danger in the terminology: and this particular jargon was originally intended to express a philosophy which made a more or less absolute antithesis between spirit and matter and consequently regarded the world and history as irrelevant ; contradicting a fundament in the dctöririe of the Incarnation with its insistence on Christianity as "avowedly materialist',1 on matter as a sacrament of spirit, on history as the field in which God works to redeem. The underlying hazards are seen, for example, in the incorporation into monastic thought of the two words 'contemplation' and * perfection \ Both words occur in the New Testamenta and, once freed from the associations of Gnostic and Neoplatonist, may have a legitimate Christian use; but it could be maintained that the nature of the idea of 'contemplation* must lead in time to an analysis of the experience of contemplation of which we see the beginnings in the Conferences and the nemesis in some modern subjective mysticism. In the Gospel perfection was a Person; in Hellenistic thought it was an impersonal state. Where a term of indefinite content could replace the discipleship of Christ, there would be danger that the goal of human life might be found not in the true humanity of a son of God, but in an impersonal, static, 'inhuman' condition« By definition ascetical theology treats of the human mechanics of moral advance, with what can be termed an 'ascent to God*. In the Gospel the ascent is the ascent of God's Son in whom the Christian has ascended. But it was so easy for Origenists to use words with a philosophical history which implied a distant God 1

W. Temple, Nature, Man and God, p. 47B. * Bur GiwpsTv in the N,T. expresses nothing more »ran I5aïv. 185

JOHN CASSIAN

at the top of a ladder and rninirnized the Christian conviction of grace* A concentration upon particular sins, instead of Sin, may create a practical Pelagianism because it suggests to the reader that he may find perfection, or salvation, by discovering the correct technique for ciiring his diagnosed sin. We have seen that the first western ascetical theologian rejected Pelagianism, that he pursued no impersonal perfection. But neither he nor many ofhis medieval successors clearly remarked the reef which could wreck the study of Christian asceticism, the translation into life itself of the theoretical abstraction from grace« An unbalanced ascetical theology would lead Luther into the despair of Erfurt* Cassian bequeathed to Latin Christianity the idea that the spiritual life was a science in which prayer reigned: that it is possible to analyse temptation and the nature of sin: that methods of prayer and mortification are neither haphazard nor individual, but ordered according to established experience. All the guides to spirituahty in which western Europe later abounded are his direct descendants.

186

APPENDIX A

CHRONOLOGY 1* EARLY LIFE Our chronology of Cassian's early hfe is based on the known fact that he was in Egypt when the Festal Letters of Theophilus were sent out, A.n. 399. It is certain that this was at or near the end of his stay in Egypt, since he must have travelled to Constantinople, at the latest, in 401.

Gibson (NPNF an, p. r88) adduces three other facts to determine the date of his sojourn in Egypt. (i) In CoU. xvni. 14 Piamun refers to Athanasîus as 'beatae memoriae cpiscopum*. Athanasius died in 373. {ii) In Coil. xvm. 7 the same abbot refers to the Emperor Valens as though he were already dead. Valens was killed at Adrianoplc in 378. (iii) In Coll. xxiv. 26 Abraham refers indirecdy to the prophecy of victory given by Johu of Lycopolis to Thcodosius the Great. The prophecy is said to have been made on two occasions—the campaigns against Maxentius in 388 and Eugenius and Arbogast in 394-5* But if wc are right in our view of the Conferences, that they represent the mind of Cassian after 425, and not the ipsissima verba of the abbots, these indications are worthless. The first visit to Egypt lasted seven years (CoU. xvn. 30, 2). After a visit to Bethlehem, he returned for a period of rime which, though unspecified, at least enabled him to become intimate with many of the ascetics of Scete. Hence the total length ofhis stay in Egypt must have been ten years or more, and probably twelve is a more likely conjecture* This would mean that he left Bethlehem m 386-7, He does not seem to have been long at Bethlehem, as he was evidendy still among the juniores when he left, for Pinufius, a novice, was put into his cell* Probably he entered the monastery about A.D* 3 80 or soon after, if he was already a young man when he sought admission. Whether he entered as adult or child, wc can only hazard the vaguest of conjectures at the year of his birth—sometime between 355 and 367; at the latest he must have been twenty years old when he left Bethlehem. Thus the earlier part ofhis life is uncertain*

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2. WRITINGS The book of the Institutes is dedicated to Bishop Castor of Apta Julia, as the preface states. Gibson argues that since Castor died in 426, the Institutes must have becu written before that date. But this datchas only been presumed for Castor's death on account of the evidence in Cassian*s writings. The only other evidence for this bishop is a mention in a Papal letter of 13 June 419/ In the preface to the first group of Conferences, l-x, Castor is already dead. The second group» Coil, xi-xvn, was published while Honoratus was still abbot of Lérins, since the preface refers to him as having charge of a large monastery. In the preface to Coll. xvin-xxjv Honoratus is mentioned AS a bishop. Therefore these two groups of Conferences were written, the one just before, the other just after, the elevation of Honoratus to the episcopate* The date of this elevation is uncertain* Patroclus of Aries was murdered in 426 (Prosper, Chronkon in PL LI. 594), and was succeeded by Helladius* (I have shown reasons for the episcopate of Helladius in JTS XLVi (i94i )> pp- 200-5 . a ) Colt, xm cannot have been written until after the De toneptione et gratia arrived in Gaul, probably in 427, and the semi-Pelagian controversy began. Therefore Honoratus was still abbot of Lérins in 427« Honoratus** episcopate was about two years in length (Vita Hîîarii VL 9) and ended with his death on the eighth or ninth day after the Epiphany (cf. Strmo de Vit. Hon, in PL 1, 1265). Probably therefore he became bishop of Aries about January 428 and died in January 430. Thus CoU. xvm-xxiv were written in 428 or 429, and Coll. xi-xvn in 427. It is likely that the Institutes and Conferences were written within two or three years since from early in the Institutes Cassian has m mind the writing of the Conferences (InsL U. £, 0, r8, v. 4). Hence we could place both the monastic writings between 425 and 429. Therefore we can place Castor*s death in 425 or 42ο, 1

Duchesne» Fastes épiscopaux de lOncietmc Gaule ι, p. 273· The Ades list* read 'Eubdiua', The manuscript of Prosper's letter to Augustine reads the alternative 'elbdrum*. The name Helladius is common in the fifth century, hut the form Euladius also occurs; cf. an inscription probably of the fifth century tired by Delehaye, Sanctus, p. 62. If 'HelkdiuV is right, the bishop of Aries may be the anchorite, cited by Cassian in the preface to Colt. i�x. who has become a bishop in the preface of Coll, xi�xvn at the time when the semi� Pelagian controversy had begun. On the other hand, if a well�known hermit had acquired the see in succession to Patroclus we should expect the incident to leave more mark upon the documents of the age. 2

188

APPENDIX A

The Nestorian controversy broke out in Constantinople in 428, but Rome did not become involved until the next year. The De Incarnatione cannot be later than 43 ο since Nestorius is still bishop of Constantinople.* The Contra Collatorem was not written earlier than 432, as Prosper refers to Pope Sixtus, who was only elevated in that year. Cassian then was still alive in 432. Gennadius seems to imply that the publication of the De Incarnatione and his death were not long separated: *in his scribendi apud Massiliatn et vivendi hhcm fecit Theodosio et Valenti� niano regnantibus* (De Vir. Inl. ixn). Most writers have been content to date his death about 435 (except Guesnay, who wanted a later date, 448)* We should then be left with the following chronological table: A.D.

Enters monastery at Bethlehem. Travels to Egypt. Outbreak of die Origenist controversy. 400 The Council of Alexandria condemns Origenism. 399�401 Arrival of Cassian in Constantinople. 405 Flight to Rome. 410 Alaric sacks Rome. ? 411�2O Foundation of the monasteries at Marseilles* ?425 Publication of the Institutes. Publication of the Conferences. 426�δ Publication of the De Ltcarnaticne* 4JO ?3*o ?386 399

?432

? 433�5

Publication öf Prosper** Contra CoUatorem, Death of Cassian.

1

Gibson thinks that in vn. 27 Casdan speaks of Augustine as still alive, presumably because he uses the present tense» 'iuquit'. But he equally uses the present tense for Ambrose, Rufinus, Jerome and Hilary of Poitiers.

[«9

APPENDIX &

THE BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN

CASSIAN

The discussion ou the birthplace of John Cassian has occupied an amount of time and thought disproportionate to its importance. No final solution is possible: but it is necessary to consider the evidence and its varying interpretations by modern scholarship. Gennadius (De Vir. Inl. ixn), writing at the end of the fifth century, describes him as * Cassian us natione Scytha': and Gennadius is almost a first�hand authority since he was himself an inhabitant of Marseilles. Even the earliest scholars, however, were worried by the question whether so educated and cultured a writer could have emanated from so barbarous a country as Scythia. It is not merely that he was educated : but he was taught secular culture, authors like Cicero and Persius» presumably before he actually entered the monastery at Bethlehem; and it was thought by some impossible that such a secular education could hive been obtained in Scythia. Thus Guesnay, in Cassianus Ulustratus^ suggested that he was born and educated at Athens, on the flimsy evidence of the Massilian Breviary, and the fact that he could speak both Latin and Greek. The question is complicated by Cassian's own statements, and by the witness of two later medieval authorities. (i) Photius (Bibl. Γ97) writes 'Ρώµην λαχόντε$ τΐΌτρΙδατ. Holste*s nephew Lambeck cited two other Greek epitomes where Cassian was called Twuotos, Atta SS, (July ν), ρ, 462, and presumed that he was a citizen of Rome itself However, as Gibson says (p. rS3), this may mean simply that he was an inhabitant of the Roman Empire. (ii) Honorius (called *of Autun 5 ), writing in the first half of tho twelfth century, copies Gennadius*â account of Cassian with one notable change of * natione Scytha* into 'natione Afcr*.1 Was there a variant reading in his manuscript, or had he access to special mformation which warranted this change as a correction of Gennadius? Gazet suggested that Honorius may seriously have thought Scythia was in Africa. (iii) Cassian himself calls the citizens of Constantinople *per affectum patriae mci cives* (De Lie, vn. 31. 3}. This may mean merely that through his association with St John Chrysostom he has the same love for the city as its inhabitants, but the expression is peculiar. Cuper, in 1

De ScripL Eccles. n. (so. It is passible that Honorius possessed the alternative reading natus Serta and confused it with the Gulf of Syrtes. 190

APPENDIX Β

Atta SS. (July v), pp. 462�3, showed that the Greek "Ρωµαίος might refer to a citizen of Constantinople, and he regarded this fact, combined with 'natione Scytha*, as probably evidence that Cassian was from Thrace or the Balkans. In spite of these dimcultics, Cassian was generally regarded as of Scythian origin, and Gazet in his outstanding edition of iôrtf accepted the evidence of Gennadius as reliable (PL xirx. 31). L* Holste, in his preface to Cassian in the Codex Regularum published in 1663, enunciated ύκ theory which maintained itself generally until modem times. In Coll. xxrv. 1. 2 Cassian refers to his homeland in inforrning Abraham that they felt a desire to revisit their parents, *ad repetendam provinciam. nostram atquc ad revisendos parentes'. Holste suggested that provinda must be taken to mean Provence; and it was rightly pointed out that Cassian's description of his own country was compatible with the fertile scenery of southern France, 'amoenitas iuciinda regionum*. .quam grate et congrue solitudinis spariis tend� eretur, ita ut non solum delcctare monachum possent secreta silvarum, scd etiam maxima victus praebere compendia* (Coll xxrv. r. 3). The assumption that Provence was his homeland would account for his choice of Marseilles when he came to the west; and the advocates of Holste*s theory accounted for the evidence of Gennadius by suggesting that Scytha in reality had become attached to his name through his long association with the desert of Scete in Egypt. With the single notable exception of L* de Tillemont, who in Mém. Eccl. xrv, p. 740 saw no adequate reason for discarding the evidence of Gennadius» the Provençal theory held the field from 1663 to rooo: e*g*, Cardinal Noris, Hist. Pekgiatta (1673)» n. 1, p. 81 ; L* F. Meyer, Jean Casskn, p. 10; C. Paucker, 'Die Latinitlt des Johannes Cassianus', in Romanische Forschungen {1886), ρ* 391; M. Petschenig in the Prolegomena to CSEL xvn (1888), pp* i�ii; Ε Sprcitzcnhofer, Die Entwicklung des alten Möncktums in Italien; E. C. S. Gibson, NPNFxi, pp» 183-4; and O. Bard^rihewer in his first edition of the Patrologie (Freiburg, 1804), p, 48Ö, The theory was materially strengthened by: (i) C. Paucker, Ice. cit.* who examined Cassian's style and found it free from ail barbaric usages; 'dass er natione Scytha gewesen sei, glauben wir nimmer mehr' t and (h) Petschenig, lot. cit., who pointed out that the reading Scytha is doubtful, some latet manuscripts reading +natus Serta*; and also that the word Scytha is sometimes used in the Vitae Patrum with reference to the desert of SceteΙΟΙ

JOHN CASSIAN In 1900 this commonly accepted theory was challenged, tn thcTheologische Quartalsthrift for that year, pp. 43 fT., A. Hoch published an article *Zur Heimat des Johannes Cassianus', arguing that Cassian must have been a Syrian, mainly on the ground that he entered the monastery at Bethlehem *a parvulo*, Coli xvn. 7, which he took to mean at a very early age* He considered it impossible that a mere boy could have been placed in a Syrian monastery unless he was the scion of a local family. It was suggested in connexion with this theory that there had been Scythian invaders of Syria and Palestine, and also that the name Cassian was otherwise found in Syria/ The arguments of Hoch were based on scanty evidence, and they gave rise in the same year to a cogent article in tcply by Dr S. Merkle, TQ (rpoo), pp. 419-41. Syria is ruled out by Cassian*s statement that the monastic life was not practised in his country, 'nullum aut cette rarissimum protessionis huius virum' (Coll. xxiv. 18); whereas Syria and Palestine were already teeming with monks. Consequently Merkle had litde difficulty in tearing Hoch*s case to pieces* But he went on seriously to challenge the established Provençal theory and came to the conclusion that there is nothing to make us reject the positive statement of Gennadius. An inhabitant of Marseilles would surely have been aware if Cassian had been a fèUow-countryman. "Would Cassian have called Provence nostra provincia, instead of provincial Moreover, in the preface to the Institutes there is a passage which definitely suggests to the Gallic bishop Castor that the author is a foreigner* He begins by comparing the relations of Castor and himself with those of Solomon and Hiram king of Tyre. When Solomon wished to build the temple of the Lord, he sends for help from the foreign king, 'illud magnificum fornino templum exstruere cupicntcm alienigettae regis Tyri auxÜium poposösse*. The Biblical simile loses all its point if in fact Castor is summoning the help of one who is not a foreigner at all Further, Scythia does not refer to the barbaric steppes of Russia, but to the Roman province of Scythia where education "would almost certainly be available: e.g* in 381 the bishop of Dorostorum had certainly been cultured enough to translate the life of his teacher Ulfilas into Latin (Merkle, p. 440). He concluded, 'Cassien stammt sicher nicht aus Syrien, schwerlich ans Südgallien, höetetwalirscheinhch aus der Dobrudscha/ These conclusions of Merkle converted Barderihewer, who in the second edition of the Patrology (ET, 1908), ρ* j i j , accepted the 1

For λ later Palestinian theory cf. A. Ménager in Echos tTQrieni (1921), pp. 330-58.

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Scythian theory* With some exceptions · modern historians have in general followed the view of Merkle and Bardenhewer; e.g. Duchesne, Hist. Anc. (1910), p, 272 n. 2; Cabxol in DACL (1910) s.v. Cassien; Η. B* Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal (1913), p. 359 n.; Schwartz, Konxihtudien (1914), p. r ; P. Pourrat, Christian Spirituality (ET, 1922), vol, i, p. 161; Kidd, History of the Church (1922), v o l m, p. 142; P. de Labriollc, Latin Christianity (ET« 1924), pT 423 n. 3. In 1929, however, Father J* B. Thibaut, in his appendix to Uandenne liturgie gallicane, sought to prove an entirely new birthplace : Cassian was Syro�Chaldean in origin and came from Gordyene, a contention which was put forward to a wider public by G, de Plinval in Fliehe et Martin, Histoire de VÉglise (1937), vol* rv, p. 398 η* ζ. Thibaut was led into the search for an Oriental birthplace by Ûï& relations between Cassian's liturgical instructions and the Oriental liturgies. He regarded Cassian as a prime source of the liturgical peculiarities of the Gallican liturgy (pp. 91(E); and Cassian's liturgical arrangements seem related to those of Ephesus, which in turn are akin to the Oriental liturgy of Addai and Maris* Therefore he looked for a birthplace which would account for Cassian's knowledge and practice of Oriental liturgical customs. He found it in Serta, the later name for Tigranocerta in Gordyene, thus accepting the less well-attested reading in the manuscripts of Gennadius's 'natus Serta'. Thibaut supported his theory by ύ\& following main arguments : (i) He had travelled in the Dobrudja, and did not regard its countryside as corresponding to Cassians cfcscription of pleasant forests and fertile lands: whereas travellers' dc�scriptions of Kurdistan appeared to correspond more closely. (ii) In a number of passages Cassian refers to the lands or customs of Babylon, Syria, Pontus and Mesopotamia. (üi) He quotes Jeremiah ii. Γ8��90 in Coll. xxrv. 24. 4. Conference xxrv is concerned widi Cassian's native land. The two travellers in Egypt question Abraham whether it would be advisable for them to return and live as ascetics at home, and the abbot replies with a disquisition on the danger of living too near one*s own kinsfolk. In chapter 22 Germanus is led on to ask an mterprctation of 'My yoke is E.g. J. M, Eesse, Les Maines de Vannerne France (Paris, 190ό), pr 36;

T* Scott Holmes. The Christian Church in Caul (London, 1911)» p. 294; M. Smith. Early Mysticism m the Near aad Middle East (London, 1931). p. 6y, L. CrisrLuii, Cassien 1, pp. 36�4^ who still maintained the Provençal theory. O, AbeL as is apparent from his title. Studien über den gallischen Presbyter Johannes Cassianus (Munich, 1904), alio rejected Merkle on the grounds of gallicirnie in Cassian's Latin style (pp, 14-16J; his proof, however, is unsubstantial. CJC

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easy, and my burden light*, a somewhat different subject indeed, but it is clear that the question of living near one's kin is still not far from the writers mind. Abraham argues that the yoke of the Lord is indeed easy, except where the Christian has made no complete renunciation, so that he is still partially entangled in worldly desire: and he compares those half-renunciations with the condition of Jerusalem when the city went running after foreign alliances instead of reposing its trust in the Lord. Abraham quotes Jeremiah*s words: 'And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? And what hast thou to do widi the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river? Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is riot with thee, saith the Lord/ Thibaut argued, pp* ioo-y, that here the mention of Assyria must have a topographical reference, that Abraham must be regarding Cassian's desire to return to Assyria as part of worldly apostasy, and that therefore wc must look for his native land somewhere in the Assyrian regions. The argument does not seem strong. In the quotation from Jeremiah, Egypt is placed parallel with Assyria, not in opposition to it. If there was any hint that Egypt was the land of true devotion in contrast with Assyria, the quotation might have some slight value for Tbibaut's contention* Since that is not so, it seems far more probable that the quotation is simply expressive of a spiritual idea and is without any topographical connotation. It is dangerous to press the exact words, rather than the spiritual sense, of a Scriptural quotation as used in the patristic period. It might be contended that the same objection can be lodged against one of the arguments against the Provencal dieory, the comparison of Castor and Cassian to Solomon and Hiram in the preface to the Institutes. But in the latter case the Scriptural reference is pointless unless Cassian was a foreigner, in the formet there is an adequate spiritual idea even if the words of Jeremiah are not pressed in any specific sense. Moreover, Abraham at that stage has passed to a topic different from the question of Cassian's native land, and such a quotation could scarcely be applicable without further explanation in the adjacent words of the abbot. If Assyria be regarded as a topographical reference, then Egypt must be so regarded also—and it makes nonsense to suggest that a return to Egypt would be apostasy when Cassian is already in Egypt and is being persuaded by Abraham to remain there. Nor is the Oriental background of Cassian's liturgy any stronger 194

APPENDIX Β

proof of a Cassianic birthplace* It is prima facie exceedingly improbable that Cassian should have acquired his liturgical knowledge and habits from the place ofhis birth, where he was young and untrained, rather than from his monastic experience which would no doubt make a far greater impression upon him. There is more reason for supposing that certain Oriental customs were in use at his monastery in Bethlehem than for regarding such customs as an indication of an Oriental birthplace. Indeed, Thibaut was later driven to recognize this improbability when he postulated, without evidence, a journey by the adult Cassian into Mesopotamia between 400 and 403, in order to account for further liturgical knowledge. A stronger argument is the contention that the land of Dobrudja does not correspond with Cassian's description. But the passage is exceedingly vague—in effect he tells us only that it was wooded and fertile, and parts of Scythia Minor might have been so described. Finally, if Gennadius had meant the Serta in Gordyene, he would surely not have written 'natus Serta' without further explanation, nor assumed that his Gallic readers would be familiar with the geographical situation of that not notably famous town, in conclusion there does not seem sufficient ground for rejecting the accepted text of Gennadius in favour of the less well�attested reading« It is possible that the suggestion of the province of Scythia Minor is too narrow. The word * Scythian' was often used in the fifth century to mean 'Goth', and Gennadius may think that he came of a Gothic family settled on Roman territory somewhere in the Balkans. The difficulties which scholars generally have felt about accepting the Scythian hypothesis are three: (i) that no adequate education would be available; (ii) that Cassian entered the monastery at Bethlehem *a parvulo*; (iii) that the geography of Scythia Minor docs not correspond with his description. It is not unlikely that a good secular education was available in a Roman frontier province, and not impossible that Cassian may have lived in a wooded and fertile corner ofthat province* Other ' Scythian' monks are known to us, though they are later in date than Cassian, e.g* Dionysius so�called Exiguus, the canonist and chronologist, was 'nationc Scytha*, and yet was learned in both the Greek and Latin languages (Cassiodorus, Div. Lect. 23). Finally, as I have tried to show in chapter I, it is possible that the phrase *a parvulo ' and similar phrases refer rather to his infancy in the faith than his physical age, and that he did not reach Palestine until he was an adult Even supposing that he was an infant, he must have been brought from some foreign country, since Syria and Palestine cannot possibly have 195

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been his native land, and therefore this objection applies no more to Scythia than to any other land that might be suggested. It is worth while examining the condition of the Christian Church in Scythia in the later half of the fourth century, for any evidence mat there were at that time flourishing Christian communities in the province would lessen the general difficulties of this Scythian theory. Sozomen (Hist. Eccl. VJ. 21 and vn. 19), writing during the first half of the fifth century, states that while Scythia Minor has many cities and villages and garrisons, there was at that time only one bishop for the whole area, the bishop of Tomi* This fact is confirmed in a decree of the Emperor Zeno about 480, Cod. Just. 1. 3. 35, and in the official ecclesiastical lists, TTcAonà Τακτικά» of the period up to the end of the seventh century. Consequendy Zedier1 argued that this solitary see implied that the pastoral needs of the area could be satisfied by one bishop—although the three neighbouring sees of Dorostorum, Abrittus and Odessus may have assisted—and that therefore there were no important Christian communities, apart from Tomi, in the province of Scythia Minor. These contentions were answered by the Riirnanian archaeologist V. Parvan in an article 'Nuove consideration! sul vescovato della Scizia Minore* in Rendiconti delta Pontificia Accademia Ronutna di Archaeologia {1924), pp, 117�3 5, He had personally excavated a number of sites in the Dobrudja, and was able to provide a list of thirty�one towns of the province where archaeological or literary evidence proves the existence of a Christian community. Not all his evidence is equally strong: but he certainly showed that at least as early as the fifth century there were many Christian communities in the province, in some cases with basilicas and martyrs. (Apart from Tomi, the main centres seem to have been five basilicas at Tropaeum, three at Troesmis, two at Histria, one at Callatis and one at Ibida* At Axiopolis there were three churches both outside the walls and in the town, and there exists a baptismal font as well as inscriptions.2) Parvan regarded his own 1

Les Origines ehrtftietutes dans les provinces danubiennes de Tempite romain (Bibl. des Èc. ft. d*Athènes et de Rome, Paris, 1518, f. l i a ) , pp. 169 fr 1 For Tomi and Axiopolis* cf. H. Delehaye, Saints de Thrace et de Mésie (Brussels» 1912), in the Anaiecta Bollandiana xxxi» pp. 258 AC An inscription of Btcrtan leaves no doubt that in Transylvania also there existed a group of Laun-rSpealdng Christians hy the middle of the fourth century; cf. D. M- Pippidi. 'Intorno alle fond Lettetarie del CdstJaneslmo Daco-Romano', in Revue historique de sud-est européen xx (Bucharest, 194.3). pp- ià6-6i; K. Hotedt, Eine Lateinische Inschrift des 4. Jahrhunderts aus Siebenbürgen (Sibiu. 1941). 19O

APPENDIX Β

archaeological survey as a mere Uginning. and states that one can presuppose other Christian centres of which evidence is not yet available. He went on (pp* 131ft.) to argtie that such a papulation could never have been served pastorally in the fifth and sixth centuries by the solitary bishop of Tomi, and held the theory that the other bishops must have been Arian, so that Tomi was regarded by Constantinople as the one Catholic bishop. In support of this he adduces the evidence of Christian Gothic names on inscriptions—and the Goths who conquered Scythia were Arian. One bishop of Tomi, Vctranio, was driven into exile on account of his orthodoxy in the time of Valens (Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. vi. 21); and finally de Boor published in 1891 a Notitia Episcopatuum from the end of the eighth century which provided four siifiragans under the metropolitan of Tomi. 1 Parvan thinks that in view of the evidence this later Notitia cannot be disregarded. There were doubtless Arians, and perhaps Arian bishops, in the province, but that supposition does not afreet the proof of a large Catholic population* For a careful reading of Sozomen vn« 19 shows that Sozomen regarded this single episcopate over a large area, not as showing that there were but few Christian communities, but as a peculiar custom of the province which he contrasts with the normal eastern rule of one bishop to each important community—auétei Σκνθαι Ίτολλαΐ πόλεις ovreç, Ινα πάντβ; Êmeniorrov fyouoiv. èo άλλοις ôe ΪΟνίσιν ècmv οηη κα. Üv κώµα,ς επίσκοποι U^OvTca* One bishop to many πολει? is clearly a contrasted exception to countries where there was a bishop to every κώµη. Probably in origin there had only been a need for one bishop over a large area, as in western Europe. But in Scythia Minor the custom of the single bishop had been maintained irrespective of the pastoral needs of the Christian communities of the province* [f Sozomen*» account of the exile of Vetranio is reliable, it provides further evidence of a flourishing Christian population* Vetranio was not driven out by any Arian population but because he preached too boldly in front of Valens when that emperor visited Tomi ; and after preaching left the imperial guards with Valens, and retired to another church in ώα town—and the people accompanied him in support. Furthermore, Valens later had to recall him because in that vital frontier district he feared a revolt as a result—γαλίπαΐυοντος γαρ οϊµοα πρό; τήν φυνήν του επισκόπου Ιοών τους ΣκύΟσ$, ÉSeSÎei µή τι νεωτερίσ&χτιν—which implies a large and powerful Christian 1

ZeUschrififür Kirchengcschichte xn (1891), pp. jjioft

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community* However, where Arians are concerned, Sozomen cannot necessarily be trusted to be accurate in detail. Thus it is clear that the Christian population of Scythia Minor must have been growing rapidly during the fourth century. Theodoret (Hist. Eccl. V. 30) shows that in ChrysostonVs time there was dose contact between that area and Constantinople.1 There is nothing improbable in the education of Cassian in that society. In view of the fact that Cassian and Dionysius Exiguus could speak, and write both Latin and Greek, it is interesting that the province of Scythia Minor was to some extent bilingual; on the coast inscriptions appear in Greek, inland and towards the Danube in Latin (Parvan, p. 131). Hence, while there are clear difficulties in the way of accepting Gennadius* statement, there is nothing impossible in it; and since there is no positive evidence to set against this outright testimony of a fellow-citizen, we may conclude that Cassian was probably born in one of the Roman provinces in the Balkans. 1

Cf. Chrysostom, Horn, Xtd in Ram. 7 in PG IX. 517.

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C

THE MONASTER Y OF ST VICTOR The coenobium founded by Cassian, in spite of some centuries of increasing fame, rendered no great service in the history of French Christianity, A temporary prosperity began when it emerged from a chequered career under the Merovingians1 into the full light of protective decrees from the Carolingian monarchs (Charlemagne in March 790, Louis the Pious ς November S22, Lothair 6 February 841, Carloman 2 February 884), Under the Benedictine Rule it survived a destruction by barbarian invasion from the sea, and a later period of weakness due to feudal controversies with the local barons and a nearby bishop over unlawful invasion of the land of St Victor. About 1004 a sick�bed repentance by William Viscount of Marseilles marked the inauguration of a period of expanding wealth and power. The relics of St Victor, enclosed in a sanctuary cut from the rock, had been attractively augmented by relics of the holy Innocents* With donations rolling into the exchequer (M. Gucrard printed no fewer than 300 cartas of donations granted between iOOO and 105ο),1 Abbot Guifred (1005�1021 ) was able to undertake the rebuilding of the monastery church, and his successor achieved a sufficient reputation to ensure inclusion in the Acta Sanctorum} By 4 July 1079, when Gregory VII issued a bull for protection of property,1 the catalogue of lands in southern France and even in Spain and Sardinia had become respectably long: and the punishments of judas Iscariot, Caiaphas, Barabbas, Dathan, Abiram and even Lucifer, had been invoked upon any assailant of St Victor. Its abbots acted as influential agents in France and Spain for the Hildcbrandine reform movement. This was the time when the abbots of St Victor brought under their control so many other 1

An abbot of Marseilles—presumably of St Victor—led a revolt of J$i against Theodore, bishop of the dry (Gregory of Tours» Hist. Franc, vi. 11). The same Theodore took refuge in St Victor from the plague {ibid. ix. 22). (King Dagobert I endowed the Church at Marseilles; cf. Cesta Dagobati iS in Mon. Germ. Hiit.: Scrip. Rer. Merov. a, p, 40$. Did St Victor share?) s Collection des Cartulaires de France, vol. xni (Paris, 1857). 3 Vita Isarni (Sept. YI), 737�49. The chief incident of his life was a journey to Spain ta release some monks of Lérins who had been kidnapped by Saracen

pirates. fl John XViil in 1006-9» Benedict Di m 1040, Leo IX in 1050. had issued similar hulls.

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houses that they were even rivals to the abbots of Clirny. Donations were not the only sources of revenue. The land near the Rhône delta was fertile: the monastery owned the fishing rights in the harbour of Marseilles, a privilege which led to serious trouble with the commune of the city, until Bishop Benedict allowed free fishing, unless the catches "were brought ashore upon the monastic land.1 In the crusading era, when Marseilles became die port of departure for the east, pilgrims from England, Germany, Spain, added their offerings to the chest of St Victor; and the Community acquired further property in Syria. Prosperity and reputation continued for a time: in 1362 Abbot William Grimoard was raised to the Papacy as Urban V, and he did not forget his companions* But from 1475, when Sixtus V conferred the abbey upon the archbishop of Aries, it often became a lucrative holding for wealthy pluralists. Members of the Medici family held it in 1516 (later Pope Clement VU) and again from 1570 to 158S; a della Rovere in 1550, a Frangipani ι$%%�ϊ6ζζ; the bastard son of Henry [V, Antoine de Bourbon, till his death in 1632; Richelieu in 1640, Mazarin in 165 5, Philippe de Bourbon in 1002. Finally the abbey was secularized in the eighteenth century after attempts to incorporate it in the congregation of St Maur had failed. Cf. a carta of 30 January 1230 ap. Guerard.

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CASSIAN AND THE CELTS Writers upon early Irish monastidsm have asserted that the Celtic Church formed another channel, apart from the Benedictine Rule, through which much Cassianic influence flowed into western Europe, on the ground that Cassian was a principal source for the earliest Irish spirituality (cf. the references in Ryan's Irish Monasticism* 1931). This theory has been based on two assumptions—the vaguely Egyptian ethos of early Celtic monachism, and the supposed sojourn of Patrick at Lérins* The following references show his influence among the early Celts : (i) Columban wrote a tiny address De Octa Vitiis following Cassian's order of sins (PL LXXX. 259). This order also occurs in later documents (cf. Ryan, p. 233 ru 3). (ii) fonas the biographer of Columban knew the Conferences (cf. Vita Iohatmis 18). (iii) The term actualis vita is common among the Celts (cf. the anonymous Life of St Cuthbert m. 1 ; Ionas, Vita Iohannist init. ; and the later reference cited by Ryan, p. 219 n, s), in his parallel life of Cuthbert, Bede (VU. Pros. xvn. 1) has changed the phrase to 'vita activa'. Similarly Bede changed the 'coenobium' of the anonymous writer into *monasterium' almost throughout. (iv) Is the private use of the 'Dcus in adiutorium* evidence? Cf Vita Columbani 1. 15» and the worthless account of Bairhene, Abbot of Iona* in Acta S3. (June 11. 237) ; Columbanus, Reg, Coen, 9 in PL LXXX. 221 ; and the citation from Rttle of Ailbe, Ryan, p. 344. n. 1. (v) The author of the life of St Samson of Dol may know Cassian; later Celtic lives naturally know him—e,g, when they wanted to describe the life of a monastery upon the Egyptian system they might go to the Institutes (cf. Ricemarcb, "Vita Sancti David* in Rees, CambraBritish Saints* pp* 127-9). Citations from him are also made in the canonical collection Htbernensis and in Marianus Scotus*s œmtnentaries on the Episdes of St Paul. But the early citations do not prove an early transference of the wotks of Cassian to Ireland. Except the anonymous author of St Cuthbert** Life, who is late enough to have known Benedict and the continental influence upon England, the earliest of the writers cited above are continental Celts. 201

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There was certainly liturgical influence, "which would not depend upon reading. At Iona and in the Irish cursus generally there was no Compline (cf. Fowler, Adamttan* p. 38); and Gougaud thinks that the Irish office came from Egypt via Cassjan-Lctins-Patrick (c£. Christianity in Celtic Lands* pp, 518, 330, 332). A manuscript, probably of the seventh century, printed in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents t, p, 139, attributes the Celtic liturgy in part to Cassian who receives the epithet beatissimus where Jeromej Honoratus, Basil, Patrick and even St Mark must be content with beatus. But the writer is certainly a continental Celt, perhaps of Bobbio, One other curious sect must be noticed here though it is possibly irrelevant Towards the end of the eighth century a group appeared in Spain, the disciples of one Migerius, known as Casiani or Salibani* Their opponents describe them as heretical concerning the Trinity; as claiming sinlessness and refusing to eat with sinners or heathen; as claiming that *in sola Roma sit potestas Dei, in qua Chrisms habitat' (Elipandus by a fierce anti-Roman reply to this claim forwarded the adopcionist controversy); as keeping the wrong date of Easter; eating thefleshof things strangled; having a bishop without a see and practising consecration by a single bishop; being acep^', placing stones instead of relics under their altars; having a peculiar rite of baptism; communicating from different chalices; taking the Host into their hands and perhaps taking it away; holding unsound views upon free will; attacking predestination ('ut quid conamur vivere quod est in Dei potestate? ut quid rogamus Deum ne vincamur tentatione quod in nostra est potestate quasi libertäre arbitrii ?'—Pope Hadrian, Ep. ixxxm in PL xevm. 383); practising too extreme an asceticism, e.g* fasting on Christmas Day if it fell on a Friday, and leading H vitam fanaticam'. They had crept up from the sea, occupied at Epagro in the diocese of Egabro a church dedicated to St Casius and * built upon sand1 (Gams in KG von Spanien 11. 2, ρ» 314 searched his maps for sandy soil near Epagro—but the reference is to the Gospel), were condemned by the metropolitan of Toledo about 782 and again by the synod of Cordova in 839 (cf. Hadrian, Ep. LXXI in PL xevm. 339 ; Elipandus in PL xcvi, 850�07 and ci, 1321�31 ; the Acts of Cordova printed in the preface to vol. xv of Florez, Espaiia Sagrada, 1759 edition). Because Cassian was known in Spain, because their dogma of predestination was unsound, and because they followed St Casius and were ascetics, Mrs Humphry Ward (DO? s.v. Egila) supposed that they may have been a late sect devoted to John Cassian, Because they came from the sea, it has been suggested that they 202

APPENDIX D

landed from Italy or Africa, especially since they put themselves forward as emissaries of Rome, It seems far more probable that they were Celts or under Celtic influence. This is the period when the Irish peregrination to the continent reached its zenith, and pilgrims must have ventured into Spain as well as GauL The peculiar rite of baptism (which explains the name Salibani), the erroneous date of Easter, the consecration by a single bishop, the peculiar meat rules, the seeless bishop, the asceticism« the name Acephali which in the Carolingian councils regularly refers to Irish wanderersI—all these suit die peculiarities of the Celtic Church. The Celts were soon professing an almost Bonifadan respect for Rome. It was a common Celtic custom for a leader to select twelve disciples (see the numerous references in Reeves, Adamnan, pp. lx3oVlxxvi), and one of the peculiarities noted of Migetius is his choice of twelve aposdes (cf. Elipandus in PL ci. 1330). The synod of Cordova calls them simoaiaci which may mean nothing : but during the eighth century the words simoniaca haeresis had become applied to the Celts with their peculiar tonsure (cf. Bede, Hist. Eccl. v. 21 ; Aldhelm, Ep. rv; and Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 1, p. T13). If then we could believe that the Casius of the Migetiaiis is John Cassian, we should have a remarkable association of Cassian with the Celts, helping to explain the beatissitnus of the liturgical document. But this elaborate structure is thoroughly flimsy, being based on little more than one brief attack upon prédestination. There are numerous early Cassiani or Cash whom a sect might acquire as a patron saint. To sum up: it is possible, though not certain, that St Patrick stayed at Lérins* But in the Patrician fragments I can find no trace of Cassianic influence. The literary evidence for knowledge of Cassian's writings in Ireland is not early. It seems doubtful whether die Conferences reached Ireland apart from the Roman and Bent^ictine and Columban influence from the continent during atë seventh and eighth centuries. Early Irish monasticism, though affected perhaps by personal visits to Lérins (c(. the visit of Riochatus to Riez in Sid, Apoll, ne. 9) and by Gallic liturgy, may have drawn more upon the Martin tradition: the work of Sulpicius Severus may have passed to Ireland as early as the fifth century (Ryan, pp. 94-5: but this is not certain; cf, Delehayc in Anal. Boll, xxxvni, pp. I M 8), The evidence showing the influence of Martin on the Celts has been collected by P. Grosjcan, Gloria Postuma S. Martini Turonettsis apud Scottos et Britannos, in Anal. Boll. LV (1937), pp. 300-4ÎL 1 Bur for Isidore Pacensis the Acephali appear to be still the Monophysites. 203

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1930.

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1921, OLPHE�GAUJARD,

Μ, 'Vic contemplative et vie active d'après Cassien.' RAM

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207

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3. S T U D I E S R E L A T I N G T O E V A G R I U S Until further studies, which have been undertaken in France, can appear, consult the following: H, U, v o s . 'Die Hiera des Evagrius," Zeitschrift fur Katholische Tfieologie 63 (1939), pp. 86-10Ö, 1*1-206, BOUSSBT» W . ApOphthegmata. Tübingen. 1923, DRAGUBT» R. *L*histoire lausiaque, une ceuvre écrite dans Pesprit d'Evagre,' RHE (1946), pp. 321-64; (1947), PP- S-49. FRANKENBERU, W, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaß der Wissenschaft zu Gotthigen. Phil.-Hist. Klasse (N.F.) XHI, 2, Berlin, 1912, GRESSMANN» H. Evagrii Paraenesis ad Virginem. Texte und Untersuchungen. Leiprig. 1913* HAUEHERR, I. 'Les versions syriaque et arménienne d'Evagre le Pontique,' OCP (1&31K PP 69-118, 'Le traicé de l'oraison d\Evagre le Pontique." RAM (Jaru-April 1934)'Le de Ofalione d'Evagre le Pontique en syriaque et en arabe.* OCP (1939), PP* 7�7Σ. 4 Nouveaux fragments grecs d'Evagre.' OCP (1939), pp. 229�33. MELCHER, R. Der 8 Brief des M. Basiîius ein Werk des Evagrius Pontikus, Munster, 1923. MUYLDERMANS, J. 'La teneur du Piacticus d'Evagre.' Muséon x i n (1929)» pp. 7+-S9'Evagriaua.' Muséonxuv (1931), pp. 37-68, 369-3*3> Λ travers la tradition manuscrite d Evagte te Pontique. Louvain, 1932. ' Les capita cognosciciva dans les versions syriaque et arménienne/ Muséon xivrt {i9U)i pp. 73-106, 'Evagriana.' Muséon u (193S}, pp. 191-226'Fragment arménien du ad virgines d*Evagte.* Muséon Lin (1940), pp. 77-88. * Evagriana de la Vatkanc/ Mttséon uv (194L)» pp. 1-L5. ' Sur les séraphin^ et sur ks chérubins d'Evagre le Pontique dans les versions syriaque et arménienne.' Muséon ux (1946), pp. 367-79. 1 SAUDREAU, A. 'La spiritualité d'Evagre k Pontique, VS (1936), Suppl., BALTHASAR.

p p . 180-90.

M. +Aux sources de la spiritualité de S. Maxime/ RAM (April-July 1030), ZöcRXERF0- Evagrius Portikus. Munich, 1893. VULêR»

208

INDEX Abel, Ο., 8, 39» 168« 193 Accidie» 62, 83, 84» 94 Acephala 202�3 'Active'life, 83,87if� Adrianople, 1, 9, 187 Aerius, Roman general, 9, 43 Agape, 22, Sort,93 Alamo» M�, 169 Alark, the Visigoth, 41, 179, 189 Alcuin, 173 Aldhelrn, St, 173, 203 Akxandria, 33 (f., 79, 82, 102, 106, 147, 154, 160* 188 Council of, 17 ff Amann, £,, 112, 113, 114, 119» 155, 157. .59 ^Ambrose, St, 43, 161, 189 Ammonius, Egyptian monk, 36* 37* 71, 74, 183 Anaesthesia, 85» 139» 140 Anaxagoras, 79 Angelk life, the, 49, 92�3 Anthropomorphism» 13 ff., 30, 33 ff, 149, 150, 165 Antony, Life of, 15» 19» 20, 72,109 Antony« St» 4,11» 13 ff, 44» 48. 49, 53, 34* S5> 57i öS* 72, 143 Letrera of; 5S Apathy, 33, S9^ 56, So, 84 ff, 91 ff, 108, 339» 182» 184, 185 Apolliiurius of Laodicca, 143» i57 Apophthegmata, the» 14, 21-2, 26, 30 rf, j6 Apostolics, 63 Apt, 47,48, jo. 52. 57,74. 75» 175.177. 138 Aquinas, St Thomas, 86« 94, 173 Archebius* 31, 106 Aries* 43,114, 168, 200 Arsenius, Egyptian monk, 22» 50 Ascetical theology, origins of, 77 ff Asdcpios, 16 Ataraxia, 80, 84 cjc

Athanasius» St, 3. 15, 23, 43, 153, 64» 1J7» ï6l* 187. See oho Antonyt Life of Athaulf, the Visigothh 43,179 Audius, Anthropomorphite leader, 16 Augustine, St, I, 6» 7» 13, i$. 29, 30, 43, 44, 63» 66,73, 78, 94,100, 102, 103, 109 ff, 112 ff, 126, 128, 133, 140, 148, 156, Σ57, IJ9, i i i. 163 Ausonius, 42, 43 Baitherte, Abbot of Iona, 210 Bardenhewer, O., 191* 192, 193 Bardy» G., 91 Basil, St. 9. it, 49�JO, 37�8* 61�2, 65» 68, 86,163, 179, 202 and Benedict, 171» 175, 178 and Cassian» 33, 49 and Evagrius, 25, 83 Baxter, Richard, 97 Bede, the Venerable, 20Γ, 203 Bcnedkt, St, 47. J°, 53» 6l, 62, 64, 103^4,171

and Cassian, 5, 57» 66, 68» 74 Rule of, 52. 56. 70. 169, 172, 173 ff* 199. 201 Bethlehem, 8 ff, 27, 29» 36,54,62,187» 189» 190,191, 195 Bobbio» 202 Bomemann, W, B„ 81 Boussct, W „ 32 Braulio, St, 168, 173 Brémond, Henrit 6» 82, 121 Briee, Bishop of Tours, 44 Butler, Dom Cuthbert, $, 23, 24, 26» 31. 37. 39, 140-7. 171-2. 174 Cabasilas, Nicobs, 138 Caelestius, disciple of Pelagius, Γ59 Caesarius of Arks, St, 40, 136 Ruk of, 168 Canopus, Pachomian community, 19 Capelle, B., 87, 149, 169. 171

2QC)

M

INDEX Cappuyns, M., 119* 169 Cashu, 203r�3 Cassian« St, of Aucun, 7 Cassian, St» of Imora, 7 Cassiodorus, 8, 38, 168» 169, 170, 171, 172. 173, 193 Castor, Bishop of Apt, 47, 48, 57, 74, 188,193, 194 Cavallera, P., 169 Celestine I. Pope. 7, n8,1x9,135. i53> IJS. 136 Cellia, community of, 21, 22, 26» 49 Chaeremon, Egyptian monk, 29» 30, 32»126 ff Chapman, Dom John, Γ43» 173,177 Children, entry o£ into monasteries, 9,S6 Chrysostom, St John, 10, 12, 13, 23, 33 ff » 45. 53> 59.64,66, 63,90,92, 103, loo, 122, 133, 134, ιΰι, 163, L79, 190 Cicero, 8, 63,190 Claudian, 42 Clément, St» of Alexandria« 20, 67, 79 ff, 84» 100-2,164 Climacus, St John, 172 Clothing in monasteries, 60-1 Cluniacs, 175 Coenobitic lite, 47 ff Columban, St, 201, 203 Conferences, the, their historicity, 26 ff Confession, system of, 58 ff, Cortstantius. associate emperor, 43 Cordova, synod of, 202, 203 Counsels, the three evangelical, 53 C Crassus, Peter» 173 Cristiani, L., 28, 40, 41, 55,193 Cuthbert. St, 201 Cyprian» St, 79, 92, 153 Cyril, St, of Akxandria, 16, 154 ff

Dornimc, St, 173 Dorostorum» see of, 9, 192, 196 Dracoutius, 64 Dualism, Cassian's precautions against, 89ff Egyptian environment, 14« 22-3, 70-2 Ecstasy, 85* 142 ff* 182 Elipandus of Tokdo, 202-3 Eftöodius, St, 178 Epiphanius. îunth-teirtury monk, 10 Epiphauius, St, 16, 63, 137 Eucharist, celebration of, 64 ff Eucherius» St, Bishop of Lyons, 30, 168, 170 Euladius, see rieUadhis Eusebius, citizen of Constantiiioplc, 133, 160,161 Eusebius of Caesar», historian, 14 Eutropius of Vaknria, 94 Evagrius. 9, 20, 24, 25, 29, 30, 33, }6, 30, 53, 54* 55. öl, 67, 71» 73* 74. S2ff, 94 ff, 98, 103, 104* 107,130, 139 ff» 150, 178, I Si, 182, 184 Fall of man, the, 129, 130, 133, 139 Faustus, Bishop of Riez, 120. 168 Femndus, 16S Filastrius, 44 Frankenberg, W., 34, 55, 67, 83, 84, 85, 86» rjo, 141, 142 Froger, Dom. J,, 68,169 Fmetuosus* 168

Gaiseric» 179 Gawt. A,, 10, 28, 41, 73» 125, 190, 191 Gcbsian Decree, 170 Gennadius, 25, 41, 47, 66, 75, 82, 94, 112, 168, 189, 190. 191. 192, 193. 195 Germanus, companion of Cassian, 8, Dagobert L King, 199 9, 11,12.13,24, 26, 34» 36, 39. 40. Darnian, St Peter, 173, 175 41, 62, 126, 193 Dccentius o f Gubbio, 73 Gibson, E. C. S„ Si 6, 27, 31, 73, 97, De Incarnatione, 6, 10, 29, 38, 39, 123, 162 ff,188 98. 187. 180* 1901191 Gnosticism, 22, 79 ff, B8, 152, 1S2, Delehaye, H., 188, 196, 203 Dkkamp, F.» 170 185 Gottschalk» 173 Dklcos»3l Gougaud, L , 51, 172, i75d 202 DiqnysiLU ExigUUS, 195, 198 2ΓΟ

INDEX Grace, doctrine of, 60, 97�9, 109 ff Gregory Nazianzene, St, 25» 140» ϊ6ι Gregory of Nyssa, St, 82» 83, 139 Gregory of Tours, St, 9, 44, 100,168, 199 Gregory the Great, St. 50. $9, 64. 94, IÛ2-3, 145-6, 170, 173* Ϊ70> 179 Grimlaic, Rule of» 173

Iona, 201, 202 lonas, 201 Ireraeus, St. Bishop of Lyons, 77 Isaac, Abbot, 141 Isidore, Egyptian priest, 25, 35 Isidore Pacensts, 203 Isidore» St, of Pelusium, 10 Isidore, St, of Seville, 51, i68, 173 Jerome, St, 4,14, iS, 21d 3 3 ff, 40 ff 47, 50�1, 61�3, 9°* i43i 161, 176, 189,

Hausherr, L, 29, 49, 79, 83, 85�7, 202 and Evagrius, 84 149 and Pachomius, 18 Helladius, 50» 114* 188 at Bethlehem, i o � n Heracleides, Bishop of Ephesus, 39�40 John of Lycopolis, Egyptian monk, 12, Heracleides, Book of, 158 Hernias, 77�θ, 131 32,187 Hermits, their ideaL r? ff, 49 ff, 63 ff, Jordanes, 9 107 Julian of Edanum, 159, 165 Heros, Bishop of Arks, 44 Julias of Toledo, 173 Hesychaim, 143 Julian the Apostate, 3 Heterhis, Bishop of Osma, 173 Justinian, emperor, 82 Heussi, Karl, 14, 18, 22, 90, 107 Rernmer, Dom Α., 149 Hilary, Gallic Augustinian, 113, 117 ff Hilary, St, Bishop of Arks, 66, ϊ68» Kidd. Β. J., 37, 1J7,193 iS8 Kirk. Κ. E,, 75, 105, 143, 146 Hilary, St, Bishop of Poitiers, 161 Koch, H , 8l, 1X2 Hincmar, Bishop of Rheims, 173 Historia Monackorum in Aegypto, 19 ff, Labrioüe, P* de, 63, 193 26, 28, 34, 91. See also Rufinus, Lactantius, 3 Tyrannius Ladeiwc, P„ 17. 18» 19, 6ϊ, 62 Hoch, A.» 18, 38, 90» 122, 124, 126, Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 192 173 Holmes, T. Scott, 5, 193 Law, William» 120 Holste, L.» 190, L91 Lazarus, Bishop of Aix, 41, 44 Honoratus, St, Bishop of Aries, 41 ff, Learning, monastic, 7�9, 24�5, 62�3 50, 168, 188, 202 Lebreton,J,, 119 Honorius of Autun, 190 Ledercq, H., 22, 66, 75 Horedt, K., 196 Leckroq.J,, 169 Hurologlont 9 Lefort, L,�Th„ 14, 15. 17, 19. 85 Leo the Great, Pope, 41, 118, 156 Ignatius Loyok, 173 Leporius, 158�9 Innocent I, Pope, 7, 40�1, 73 Lérins, monastery of, 45» 50, 105, i n , Institutes, the, 47 ff, 74 ff, 86 ff, 94,97, 113, 120, 16S» 170, 172, 1 8 8 , 1 9 9 , 9 9 , 102^�3. I2L�2, 124, 149, 133, 162. 168, 171. 176�7* 188�9, 194. 201

epitomes, 172 Interpreters, among Egyptian monks, 15 211

200, 201, 202, 203

Liber Graduum, 149 Liberatus, 156 Lieske, Α., 8i Lupus, Bishop of Troycs, 168 Luther, Martin, 163, 186

INDEX Macarian homilies, 149, 183. See also Messalians Macarii, the, 9, 22, 103, 106, 109, 183 Mani, 3, 14. 22 Marianus Scotus, 201 Marseilles, St Victor at, 4I ff, J99-ZOO Marsüi, S., 26, 87, 103, 139, 148, 172 Martin, St, Bishop of Tours, n , 43 ff, 64,171.183.203 MaTfentius, 187 Melania, St, 25 Melitians, 17 Memorization, 20, 21, 69, 15Γ, 152 McTcator, Matins, 160 Merkle, Dr S., 192, 193 Messalians, the, 63, 148�9, See also Macarian homilies Migetius, 202�3 Migne, 82, 83 Mitacks, 32, 47�8, 102�3 Monte Cassino, 174, 175 Mortification, 70 ff Moschus, 65, 107 Muyldennans, J,T S3, 85 Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, 14 Neoplatonists, 3, 22, 92.149,150» 163, 181, 185 Neopythagoreans, 14, 22 Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinopk, 153 ff, i6o�2 h 189 Nicetius, 68 Nilus, 50, 54, 83, 85, 86,141, 145. 172� 183 Nitria, mountain of, 11, 18, 19 ff, 33 ff Novitiate, 10, 60 ff Numbcr symbolism, 2S�9, 94 Obedience, ideal of, ^s. ff Offices, daily, 67 ff, 152�3 Olphc�Galliard, M., 139,149, ï68,173, 174 Olympiodorus, 43 Oman, John, 137 Orange, Council of, 136 Origen, 16, 2Û, 59, 80 ff, 89, 94, W2, 109, 131,150,179, 184 Origenism, 16, 20 ff, 33 ff, 39, 62, 91, 189 212

Pachomian monasteries, i t , 17 ff, 72, 85 Pachomius, 4, 10,11,12,17 ff, 40, 49, 175 Rule of, 47, 60, 6l, 72 Palladius, Bishop of Helenopohv 7 ff, 18, 21, 24. 26, 33 ff, 39 ff, 6s, 86, 181 Panephysis, 12, 31 Paphnutius, Egyptian monk, 24-5, 34, 54» 102 Parvan, V., 196, I97i 198 Paschasius, deacon at Rome, 168 Patermucius, Egyptian monk, 9, 56, 93 Patrick, St, 169, 201 ff Patroclus of Arks, 188 Paucker, C., 8, 91, 191 Paul the Deacon, 36 Paulinus of Pella, 42-3 Paulinus, St, of Nola, 43 Pbow, Pachomian monastery, 18 Pccters, P., 17 Pelagianism, 6, 11, 91, 10S, 109, n o , 112 ff, 156 ff. 171, 180* 186 Pelagius, 41, 89-91. 123, 136,156 ff Penn, William, 183 Persius, 8, 190 Petschenig, M,, 6, 7,8, io, 162,173,191 Philip, Egyptian hermit, 39» 40 Philo, 14, 79, 83, 90. 92 Photius, 40, 43, 73, 172, 190 Pinufius, Egyptian abbot, 11-12, 26, 76, 187 Pinytus, Bishop of Cnossos, 14 Plenkers, Dr H„ 75, 76 Plotinus, 149 Poemenion, monastery of, 10 Postumian, Gallic monk, 19, 45, 46 Prayer, 84-5, 141 ft". PrisciBian, 43-4 Proculus, Bishop of Marseilles, 41, 44, 118, 159 Prosper, St, 7. 32. 43, 44> " 3 , H 4 f f , 127, 128, 130, 133 ff, 150, 188, Γ89 Contra Collatorem, 27, 134 ff, 189 Psalter, the, 21, 27, 67 ff, 152, 133 Pseudo�Dionysius, Γ49, 181 Quintilian, 158

INDEX Rabanus, Maurus, 173 Regula Cassiani, 75-6 Regula Magistri, 169 Reitzetistein, R-, i9d 23. 64. 163 Richard, St, of St Victor, 151 Riochatus, 203 Rufinus, Tyratinius, iSi 20, 23, 25, 81, 82, 92, 161, 189 Ruricius of Limoges, 168 Rusticus, Bishop of Narbonne, 11S Rudlius Namatianus, 43 Salibani, 202-3 Salhist, S Salvian, 41, 43. 44, IQ5. I79 Samson, St, of Dol, 20T Satabaites, so Sarapion, archdeacon of Constantinople, 40 Sarapion, Egyptian monk, 17, 140 Sarapion the Sindonite, 93 Scete. desert of. 9. 18 ff, 34, 49, Mî* 187, 191 Schnoudi, Egyptian monk, 19-20. 51 Schwartz, E„ 8, 40, ί 6 ο * 193 Scythia, 7, 9, 190 ff Scythopalis, 35 Semi�Pelagianism, J, 6, 3°J n } ^ ( 170, 183,188 Serapion of Thmuis, 13 Serapion, tomb of, 23 Serapis, temple of, 14 Sinkssness, 91 ff, 139 ff Sins, the eight capital, 94 ff Sixtus III. Pope, 136, 189 Smaragdus, 173 Socrates, ecclesiastical historian, 2s, 34> 35,39 Sozomen, ecclesiastical historian, 7, 14, 23, 2j, 33. 39, 40. 61, 62, 196, 197 Stilicho, 42. 179 Stoics, 14, 55, 50, 79 ff. 88, 91, 92

Sulpicius Severus, 7, 19, 32, 44, 45, 49, 50, 56, 64, 71, 102, 170. 183, 203 Synod of the Oak, 40 Tabennisi, 12 Taylor, Jeremy, 120 TcxtLillian, 133, 17° Theodore* Bishop of Marseilles, 199 Theodore of Mopsuestia, 155 Theodore, Pachomian monk, 85 Theodorer, 197 Theadosius the Great, 7, 187 Theodulf of Orleans, Ï73 Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, 18, 33 ff, 40, 92,187 Theotokos, 154 ff Therapeutae, 14 Tilmanrt, Carthusian monk, 173 Tuentius» Gallic bishop, 44 Ulfilas, 192 Urban V, Pope, 172, 200 Venerius of Marseilles, 114, 118-9 Vetranio, Bishop of Tomi, 197 Victor, African bishop, 170 Victrkius, St, of Rouen, 45 Vigilanrius, 4* 105 Vincent, St, of Lérins, 91, i l l ff 119 ff, 135 Vivarium, 171 Völker, W „ 81, 83, 92, 149, 150 Volusianus, 105 Vows, 33-4, 57-8 Weingarten, H., 28-30, 81 William, Viscount of Marseilles, 199 Workman, H. B., 23, 64, 75. 181. Ï93 Zeno, emperor, 17, 196 Zockler. Ο�, 25�ΰ, 31, 83, 94 Zosimus, Pope, 44