the Ascetic life

the four centuries on

CHARITY

TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED

BY

POLYCARP SHERWOOD, O.S.B., S.T.D.

St. Meinrad Archabbey

Professor ofPatrology

Pontifical Institute of St. Anselm, Rome

WESTMINSTER, MARYLAND

THE NEWMAN PRESS

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO

1955
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THE NEWMAN PRESS

WESTMINSTER MD USA

a _ LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO LTD

P *\ 6 & 7 CLIFFORD STREET LONDON WI

Q q BOSTON HOUSE STRAND STREET CAPE TOWN

531 LITTLE COLLINS STREET MELBOURNE

ORIENT LONGMANS LTD

Al

CALCUTTA BOMBAY MADRAS

DELHI VIJAYAWADA DACCA

First published in U.S.A. igtf

First published in Great Britain igss

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number : 55-8642

Nihil obstat: J. Quasten, cens. dep.

Imprimatur: Patricius A. O'Boyle, D.D., Archiep. Washingtonen.

d. 23 Feb. 1955

all rights reserved

made and printed in great britain

by william clowes and sons, limited, london and beccles

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 GU

filius
3 Sic)5

auctoribus vitae
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 -
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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Prefatory .......

I. Life

Theological position at the outset .

Progress to and Establishment in Africa

relations with imperial governors .

Monothelite Controversy: the 'Psephos'

monothelite controversy: the 'ecthesis*

Crisis : the Affair of Pyrrhus

Roman Activity

Arrest and Trials

II. Doctrine ....

a. God ....

The Triune God

b. Man ....

God and the World

The Constitution of the World and of

The Composite Nature of Man

Man

PAGE

10
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12

14

18

20

24

26

28

29

32

45

46

47

5i

55

63

70

73

77

8i

Freedom

Man—Adam

c. Deification

Agents of Deification : The Church

The Sacraments ....

Asceticism and its Technique

Prayer and Contemplation .

Charity

The Maximian Synthesis

87

9i

97
Vlll CONTENTS

III. Special Introduction 99

a. The Ascetic Life 99

b. The Four Centuries on Charity

101

TEXT

The Ascetic Life 103

The Four Centuries on Charity: Prologue . . . 136

Century I . . . ." . . . . 137

Century II 152

Century III 173

Century IV 192

NOTES

Bibliography

211

Notes on the Introduction

on The Ascetic Life

on The Four Centuries on Charity

INDEX 269

214

240

248
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 THE ASCETIC LIFE

AOrOC ACKHTIKOC
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KEOAAAIA T7EPI AfAnHC

ST. MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

THE FOUR CENTURIES ON CHARITY

108 ST. MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

Hence when the Lord says: Love your enemies; do good to

them that hate you, and what follows,31 He does not com-

mand the impossible, but clearly what is possible; for He

would not otherwise rebuke the transgressor. The Lord

Himself makes it clear and has shown it to us by His very

works; and so too all His disciples, who strove till death

for love of their neighbor and prayed fervently for those

that killed them. But since we are lovers of material things

and of pleasure, preferring them above the command-

ment, we are then not able to love them that hate us; rather

we often, because of these things, repulse them that love

us, being worse disposed than beasts and creeping things.32

And that is why, not being able to follow in the steps of

God, we are likewise unable to know His purpose, so

that we might receive strength.'

9. Then the brother said: 'Look, Father, I left every-

thing—relatives, property, luxury, and the world's good

opinion; in this life I have no possessions but my body;

still I am not able to love a brother that hates

and repulses me, even if I force myself actually not to

return evil for evil. Tell me then what ought I to do so

as to love him from my heart, or in fact anyone that

troubles me or contrives against me in any way at all?'

The old man replied: 'It is impossible for a man to love

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his tormentor, even though he think that he has renounced

worldly things, unless he truly know the purpose of the

Lord; but if by the Lord's gift he is enabled to know it and

lives by it zealously, then he can love from his heart him

that hates and troubles him, as did the Apostles, too, after

they had known it.'

10. And the brother said: 'And what the Lord's purpose

was, I beg to know, Father.'

The old man said: 'If you want to know the Lord's
THE ASCETIC LIFE 109

purpose, listen intelligently. Our Lord Jesus Christ, being

God by nature and, because of His kindness, deigning also

to become man, was born of a woman and made under the

law,33 as the divine Apostle says, that by observing the

commandment as man He might overturn the ancient

curse on Adam. Now the Lord knew that the whole law

and the prophets depend on the two commandments of

the law—Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole

heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.3i He therefore was eager

to observe them, in human fashion, from beginning to end.

But when the devil, who deceived man from the begin-

ning and thereby had power of death, had seen Him

receive at baptism the Father's testimony and, as man, the

Holy Spirit from heaven, consubstantial to Himself, and

also when he saw that He had come into the desert to be

tempted by himself: then he mustered all his battle force

against Him, thinking that in some way he might make

even Him prefer the substance of this world to love for

God. Now then, as the devil knew that there are three

things by which every thing human is moved—I mean

food, money, and reputation, and it is by these too that he

leads men down to the depths of destruction—with these

same three he tempted Him in the desert. But Our Lord,

coming off victor over them, ordered the devil to get

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behind Him.

11. Such then is the mark of love for God. Now the

devil was, by his promises, unable to persuade Him to

transgress this commandment. So making use of the

wicked Jews and his own machinations, he strove to per-

suade Him, on returning to society, to transgress the com-

mandment of love for neighbor. For this reason while the

Lord was teaching the ways of life, and actually demon-

strating the heavenly manner of life, and preaching the

110 ST. MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

resurrection from the dead, and promising believers eternal

life and the kingdom of heaven, but threatening un-

believers with eternal punishment, and, in confirmation

of what He said, making a display of extraordinary divine

signs and inviting the crowds to faith, that vindictive

wretch stirred up the wicked Pharisees and Scribes to their

various plots against Him in order to bring Him to hate

the schemers. He thought that He would not be able to

bear up under their plots; and so he would be attaining his

purpose by making Him a transgressor of the command-

ment of love for neighbor.

12. But the Lord, since He was God, knew his intimate

designs; nor did He hate the Pharisees that were thus egged

on35—how could He, being good by nature? On the con-

trary, out of His love for them He fought back against the

Instigator: He admonished, rebuked, reproached, berated,

ceaselessly did good to those who were egged on, who,

though able to resist, yet through sloth had willingly borne

with the Instigator. Blasphemed, He was long-suffering;

suffering, He patiently endured; He showed them every

act of love. Thus against the Instigator He fought back by

His loving-kindness towards those egged on—O para-

doxical war! Instead of hate He sets forth love, by good-

ness He casts out the father of evil. It was for this reason
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that He endured such evils from them; rather, to speak

more truly, on their account He, as man, contended until

death on behalf of the commandment of love. And, after

securing complete victory over the devil, He crowned

Himself with the Resurrection for our sake. Thus the new

Adam renewed the old. It is what the divine Apostle says:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,36 and

what follows.

13. This then was the Lord's purpose, that as man He

-
THE ASCETIC LIFE III

obey the Father until death, for our sake, keeping the

commandment of love; that against the devil He fight

back, in being subject to attack from him by means of

those whom he egged on, the Scribes and Pharisees.

Thus by being conquered deliberately, He conquered

him who hoped to conquer and snatched the world

from his dominion. In this way Christ was crucified through

weakness.31 Through this weakness He killed death and

destroyed him who had the empire of death.38 In this way

also Paul was weak as to himself, yet boasted in his

infirmities that the power of Christ might dwell in him.39

14. Realizing what sort of victory this was, Paul wrote

to the Ephesians, saying: Your wrestling is not against flesh

and blood, but against principalities, against powers,40 and

what follows. He said to take the breastplate of justice and

the helmet of hope and the shield of faith and the sword of

the Spirit that they might be able to extinguish all the

fiery darts of the wicked one, all they that carry on war

against invisible enemies.*1 By deeds he showed the

manner of wrestling, saying: I therefore so run, not as at an

uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise

my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have

preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.42 And

again: Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are
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naked, and are buffeted.43 And again: ...in labor andpainful-

ness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in

cold and nakedness, besides those things which are without.44

15. Now in this wrestling he wrestled against the

demons that excite pleasures in the flesh, driving them out

through the weakness of his own body. But against those

who war to stir up hatred, who therefore rouse the more

negligent against the pious, that under the thrust of such

temptation they may hate them and transgress against the