The Twelve Books of John Cassian on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. St. John Cassian 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface - The Life of St. John Cassian………………………………………………………12 I. Of the Institutes of the Renunciants 1. Of the training of those who renounce this world, and of the way in which those are taught among the monks of Tabenna and the Egyptians who are received into the monasteries. 2. Of the way in which among them men remain in the monasteries even to extreme old age. 3. Of the ordeal by which one who is to be received in the monastery is tested. 4. The reason why those who are received in the monastery are not allowed to bring anything in with them. 5. The reason why those who give up the world, when they are received in the monasteries, must lay aside their own clothes and be clothed in others by the Abbot. 6. The reason why the clothes of the renunciants with which they joined the monastery are preserved by the steward. 7. The reason why those who are admitted to a monastery are not permitted to mix at once with the congregation of the brethren, but are first committed to the guest house. 8. Of the practices in which the juniors are first exercised that they may become proficient in overcoming all their desires. 9. The reason why the juniors are enjoined not to keep back any of their thoughts from the seniors. 10. How thorough is the obedience of the juniors even in those things which are matters of common necessity. 11. The kind of food which is considered the greatest delicacy among them. 12. How they leave off every kind of work at the sound of someone knocking at the door, in their eagerness to answer at once. 13. How wrong it is considered for anyone to say that anything, however trifling, is his own. 14. How, even if a large sum of money is amassed by the labor of each, still no one may venture to exceed the moderate limit of what is appointed as adequate. 2 15. Of the excessive desire of possession among us. 16. Of the rules for various rebukes. 17. Of those who introduced the plan that the holy Lessons should be read in the Coenobia while the brethren are eating, and of the strict silence which is kept among the Egyptians. 18. How it is against the rule for anyone to take anything to eat or drink except at the common table. 19. How throughout Palestine and Mesopotamia a daily service is undertaken by the brethren. 20. Of the three lentil beans which the steward found. 21. Of the spontaneous service of some of the brethren. 22. Of the system of the Egyptians, which is appointed for the daily exercise of the brethren. 23. Of the obedience of Abbot John by which he was exalted even to the grace of prophecy. 24. Of the dry stick which, at the bidding of his senior, Abbot John kept on watering as if it would grow. 25. Of the unique vase of oil thrown away by Abbot John at his senior's command. 26. How Abbot John obeyed his senior by trying to roll a huge stone, which a large number of men were unable to move. 27. Of the humility and obedience of Abbot Patermucius, which he did not hesitate to make perfect by throwing his little boy into the river at the command of his senior. 28. How it was revealed to the Abbot concerning Patermucius, that he had done the deed of Abraham; and how when the same Abbot died, Patermucius succeeded to the charge of the monastery. 29. Of the obedience of a brother who, at the Abbot's bidding, carried about in public ten baskets and sold them by retail. 30. Of the humility of Abbot Pinufius, who left a very famous Coenobium over which he presided as Presbyter, and out of the love of subjection, sought a distant monastery where he could be received as a novice. 31. How when Abbot Pinufius was brought back to his monastery he stayed there for a little while, and then fled again into the regions of Syrian Palestine. 32. The charge which the same abbot Pinufius gave to a brother whom he admitted into his monastery in our presence. 3 33. How it is that, just as a great reward is due to the monk who labors according to the regulations of the fathers, so likewise punishment must be inflicted on an idle one; and therefore no one should be admitted into a monastery too easily. 34. Of the way in which our renunciation is nothing but mortification and the image of the Crucified. 35. How the fear of the Lord is our Cross. 36. How our renunciation of the world is of no use if we are again entangled in those things which we have renounced. 37. How the devil always lies in wait for our end, and how we ought continually to watch his head. 38. Of the renunciant's preparation against temptation, and of the few who are worthy of imitation. 39. Of the way in which we should mount towards perfection, whereby we may afterwards ascend from the fear of God up to love. 40. That the monks should seek for examples of perfection not from many instances, but from one or a very few. 41. The appearance of what infirmities one who lives in a Coenobium ought to exhibit. 42. How a monk should not look for the blessing of patience in his own case as a result of the virtue of others, but rather as a consequence of his own long suffering. 43. Recapitulation of the explanation how a monk can mount up towards perfection. II. Of the Spirit of Gluttony 1. The transition from the Institutes of the monks to the struggle against the eight principal faults. 2. How the occasions of these faults, being found in everybody, are ignored by everybody; and how we need the Lord's help to make them plain. 3. How our first struggle must be against the spirit of gluttony; i.e., the pleasures of the palate. 4. The testimony of Abbot Antony in which he teaches that each virtue ought to be sought for from him who possesses it in a special degree. 5. How that one and the same rule of fasting cannot be observed by everybody. 6. That the mind is not intoxicated by wine alone. 7. How bodily weakness need not interfere with purity of heart. 4 8. How food should be taken with regard to the aim of perfect continence. 9. Of the measure of the chastisement to be undertaken, and the remedy of fasting. 10. That abstinence from food is not of itself sufficient for preservation of bodily and mental purity. 11. That bodily lusts are not extinguished except by the entire rooting out of vices. 12. That in our spiritual contest we ought to draw an example from the carnal contests. 13. That we cannot enter the battle of the inner man unless we have been set free from the vice of gluttony. 14. How gluttonous desires can be overcome. 15. How a monk must always be eager to preserve his purity of heart. 16. How, after the fashion of the Olympian games, a monk should not attempt spiritual conflicts unless he has won battles over the flesh. 17. That the foundation and basis of the spiritual combat must be laid in the struggle against gluttony. 18. Of the number of different conflicts and victories through which the blessed apostles ascended to the crown of the highest combat. 19. That the athlete of Christ, so long as he is in the body, is never without a battle. 20. How a monk should not overstep the proper hours for taking food, if he wants to proceed to the struggle of interior conflicts. 21. Of the inward peace of a monk, and of spiritual abstinence. 22. That we should for this reason practice bodily abstinence, that we may by this fasting attain to purity of heart. 23. What should be the character of the monk's food. 24. How in Egypt we saw that the daily fast was broken without scruple on an arrival. 25. Of the abstinence of one old man, who took food six times so sparingly that he was still hungry. 26. Of another old man, who never partook of food alone in his cell. 27. What the two Abbots, Paesius and John, said of the fruits of their zeal. 28. The Lessons and example which Abbot John when dying left to his disciples. 29. Of Abbot Machetes, who never slept during the spiritual conferences, but always went to sleep during earthly tales. 30. A saying of the same old man about not judging anyone. 31. The same old man's rebuke when he saw how the brethren went to sleep during the spiritual conferences, and woke up when some idle story was told. 5 32. Of the letters which were burnt without being read. 33. Of the solution of a question which Abbot Theodore obtained by prayer. 34. Of the saying of the same old man through which he taught by what efforts a monk can acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures. 35. A rebuke of the same old man, when he had come to my cell in the middle of the night. 36. A description of the desert in Diolcos, where the Anchorites live.