Letter 781

To Neilos the Scholastikos [scholastikos = advocate, a learned lawyer]. There are, according to Your Eloquence, certain people in the world, men engaged in worldly life, who have acquired the name of being scrupulously just, and who fast continually, and go unwashed, and lie on the ground, and pray with the most extensive vigil and with prayer and with the protection they extend in their measure to those who are oppressed, yet have never received any experience of the demons at all; because the devil does not greatly concern himself with such people, but rather, against those who have chosen the solitary and tranquil life he, so to speak, sharpens with care, every hour, the unwearied edge of his ten thousand temptations, and whets his sword. So these men have not yet had experience of the demonic wars that are yours; not yet have they been singed by even a skirmish of the spiritual battle-line; not yet have they suffered the onslaught of the fleshless barbarians; not yet have the invisible boxers come up against them; not yet have the bitter and unsmiling and dark phalanxes of the adversaries drawn near to them; not yet has the Assyrian [a scriptural figure for the devil] come upon them; not yet have they been tested; not yet have they been shaken and tossed about; not yet have they been darkened over or overshadowed, as the Lord says to Job, that "Beneath the dragon great trees are overshadowed" [Job 40:22, Septuagint] -- that is, certain wondrous men, full of virtue and of a more divine knowledge, are befouled by the devil, are thrown into confusion, are sifted, are shaken, and are tossed back and forth like quinces; they are bitten by his mouth, their faces are struck by his tail, they endure ten thousand insults from him, they are at a loss, they grow dizzy and long to depart from the tabernacle [the body], they pray to be parted even from the bit of flesh through which our enemy contends to gain dominion over us. Why need one say much? These men have not yet so much as heard the very name of that virtue which is full of peril and full of toil, and already they suppose themselves to be, in the highest degree, contestants, victors over all the opposing powers, laborers fulfilling every evangelical ordinance, fashioners of an exceptional practical life, knowledgeable in every kind of spiritual wisdom, so that they no longer have any need at all of those who would teach them. For this reason, then, they proceed to find fault with many, to revile those who preside over the Church, to sneer at and disparage the monks, and they take pleasure in forever discussing the affairs of others. But it is a great sin, on the part of those who are wounded by very many transgressions, not to scrutinize their own sins, but to busy themselves about the affairs of others and to speak ill of them. And indeed they are displeased with everyone, they treat everyone as nothing, even the best of men, often; they reproach everyone, they trample upon everyone, though no one has sought them out. And some they even attempt to instruct, though they have not yet themselves learned. Such men, therefore, are to be likened to little children who promise to slay all the barbarians with a wooden sword -- just as you yourself have repeatedly said to certain people. Again, those who, like ourselves, are dead in their character seem to me to resemble a very simple little child who boasts that he knows farming with all exactness: he took a very broad basin, threw into it countless seeds, poured on water, and watered them abundantly, and after not long he beheld those little seeds sprouted and the basin grown green, set in the inner courtyard of his father's house; and immediately he rejoices and takes great delight and cries out before everyone, with both an oath and laughter, saying, "I am experienced in every kind of husbandry, and a perfect farmer." But he does not know the labors of those who tend and plow the fields; he does not understand the plunderings of the birds; he does not know the afflictions of drought and the parching of scorching heat that often occur in the very winter, or, after the seeds spring up, the ravages of certain beasts in turn, or the incursions of wild asses or of other animals, or the thefts of men, or the tramplings of wild beasts, or the descent of hail, or the burning of the ears of grain. So the infant knows that one must keep watch out in the field, and be sober, and guard one's own farmland. He does not know at all -- he only hears -- what the locust is, and the caterpillar, and the mildew, and the grub. Yes indeed, such men of infantile mind are still further to be likened to a little child who has a ferry-boat within the harbor, and sails in play close by the shore, and boasts as though he were among those who have crossed all the fearsome seas. But in saying these things now, I reckon that I have laid hold of our own conceit not moderately.

Εἰσί τινες ἐν κόσμῳ βιωτικοί, κατὰ τὴν σὴν λογιότητα, κεκτημένοι τοὔνομα τοῦ ἀκριβοδικαίου, καὶ νηστεύοντες διὰ παντός, καὶ ἀλουτοῦντες, καὶ χαμηλοῦντες, καὶ πλείστη προσευχόμενοι ἀγρυπνίᾳ, καὶ προσευχῇ, καὶ τῇ ἐκ μέρους τῶν καταπονουμένων προστασίᾳ, μηδέποτε δὲ λαβόντες δαιμόνων πεῖραν τὸ σύνολον· διότι οὐδὲ πάνυ περὶ αὐτῶν τῷ διαβό- λῳ μέλει, μᾶλλον δὲ κατὰ τῶν τὸν μόνηρη καὶ ἡσύχιον ἑλομένων βίον, τὴν ἀψήκτην τῶν μυρίων πειρασμῶν καθέκαστην, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ὥραν φιλοκαλεῖ, καὶ ὀξύνει μάχαιραν. Οὔπω τοίνυν τῶν καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἐν πείρᾳ γεγόνασι πολέμων δαιμονικῶν· οὔπω οὐδὲ ἀκροβολισμοῦ τινος νοητῆς παρατάξεως ἡψανθέντ— οὔπω ἐπιδρομὴν ἀσάρκων βαρβάρων πεπόνθασιν· οὔπω προσῆλθον αὐτοῖς οἱ ἀόρατοι πύκται· οὔπω προσήγγισαν αὐτοῖς αἱ πικραί, καὶ ἀμειδεῖς, καὶ σκοτειναὶ τῶν ἐναντίων φάλαγγες· οὔπω ἐπῆλθεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἀσσύριος· οὔπω ἐδοκιμάσθησαν· οὔπω διεσείσθησαν καὶ διετινάχθησαν· οὔπω συνεσκοτίσθησαν οὐδὲ ἐσκιάσθησαν, καθὼς φησὶν ὁ Κύριος τῷ Ἰώβ, ὅτι Ἐν τῷ δράκοντι δένδρα μεγάλα σκιάζονται· τουτέστι, θαυμάσιοί τινες ἄνδρες, καὶ ἀρετῆς καὶ γνώσεως θεϊκωτέρας γέμοντες, ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου θολοῦνται, συγχέονται, σινιάζονται, σαλεύονται, καὶ διακυδωνίζονται, τῷ στόματι δάκνονται, τῷ οὐραίῳ τὰ πρόσωπα τύπτονται, μυρίας ἐπηρείας παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ ὑπομένουσιν, ἀποροῦνται, ἰλιγγιῶσιν ἐξελθεῖν τοῦ σκήνους, εὔχονται καὶ σαρκίου διαζευχθῆναι, δ´ οὗ ὁ δυσμενὴς ἡμῶν κατάρχειν φιλονεικεῖ. Τί δεῖ τὰ πολλὰ λέγειν; Οὔπω οὐδὲ ἤκουσαν σχεδὸν τῆς πολυκινδύνου καὶ πολυμόχθου ἀρετῆς τοὔνομα, καὶ ἤδη τοπάζουσιν εἰς τέλος ὑπάρχειν ἀγωνισταί, νικηταὶ πασῶν ἀντικειμένων δυνάμεων, ἔριθοι παντὸς εὐαγγελικοῦ διατάγματος, τορευταὶ πρακτικῆς ἐξαιρέτου, ἐπιστήμονες παντοίας πνευματικῆς σοφίας, ὡς μηδὲν ὅλως ἔτι προσδεῖσθαι τῶν διδασκόντων αὐτούς. Διόπερ λοιπὸν ἄρχονται ψέγειν πολλούς, λοιδορεῖν τοὺς τῆς Ἐκκλησίας προκαθημένους, μυκτηρίζειν καὶ διασύρειν τοὺς μοναχούς, ἡδέως τε ἀεὶ ὁμιλεῖν τὰ ἀλλότρια. Ἔστι δὲ μεγάλη ἁμαρτία τὸ μὴ περισκοπεῖν τὰ οἰκεῖα ἁμαρτήματα τῶν πλείστοις ἀνομήμασι τετρωμένων, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων πολυπραγμονεῖν καὶ λέγειν κακά. Ἀτὰρ δὴ καὶ πᾶσιν ἀπαρέσκονται, πάντας ἐξουδενοῦσι, καὶ τοὺς ἀρίστους πολλάκις· πᾶσιν ἐπιμέμφονται, πᾶσιν ἐπιβαίνουσι μὴ ζητούμενοι. Τινὰς δὲ καὶ κατηχεῖν ἐπιχειροῦσι, μήπω μεμαθηκότες. Τοὺς τοιούτους τοιγαροῦν παρεικαστέον παιδίοις μικροῖς, μετὰ μαχαίρας ξυλίνης πάντας βαρβάρους φονεύειν ὑπισχνουμένοις, καθάπερ αὐτὸς πρὸς τινας πλεονάκις εἴρηκας. Πάλιν οἱ παραπλησίως ἡμῖν ὑπάρχοντες νεκροὶ τὸ ἦθος, ἐοίκασι μοι δοκοῦσι παιδίῳ ἁπλουστάτῳ καυχωμένῳ εἰδέναι σὺν ἀκριβείᾳ πάσῃ γεωργικήν, ὅπερ λαβὸν λεκάνην πλατυτάτην, βέβληκεν εἰς αὐτὴν κόκκους ἀναριθμήτους, ὕδωρ δὲ ἐπέχεεν, καὶ πότισαν δαψιλῶς, μετ᾽ οὐ πολὺ ἐθεάσατο τὰ μικρὰ ἐκεῖνα βλαστήσαντα σπέρματα, καὶ χλοηφορήσασαν τὴν λεκάνην, κειμένην ἐν τῷ μεσαύλῳ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρικοῦ, παραυτίκα τε χαίρει καὶ τέρπεται μεγάλως καὶ βοᾷ ἐπὶ πάντων μεθ᾽ ὅρκου τε καὶ γέλωτος λέγων, ὅτι Ἐμπειρός εἰμι παντοίας γεηπονίας, καὶ τέλειος γεωργός. Οὐκ οἶδε δὲ τοὺς πόνους τῶν τὰ χωράφια φιλοκαλούντων καὶ ἀροτριώντων· οὐκ ἐπίσταται τὰς τῶν ὀρνέων διαρπαγάς· οὐκ οἶδε τὰς θλίψεις τῆς ἀβροχίας, καὶ φλογμῶν ξηρασίας ἐν αὐτῷ χειμῶνι πολλάκις γινομένας, ἢ μετὰ τἀσελβῆναι πάλιν γεννήματα θρεμμάτων τινῶν, ἢ ὀνάγρων ἐμβολάς, ἢ ἄλλων ζώων, ἢ κλοπὰς ἀνθρώπων, ἢ καταπατήματα θηρίων, ἢ ἐπιφορὰν χαλάζης, ἢ ἐμπυρισμὸν σταχύων. Οὕτω γινώσκει τὸ βρέφος, ὅτι χρὴ γρηγορεῖν κατὰ τὸν ἀγρὸν ἔξω, καὶ νήφειν, καὶ φυλάττειν τὸ οἰκεῖον γεώργιον. Οὐκ οἶδε πάμπαν, μόνον δὲ ἀκούει, τί ἐστιν ἀκρίς, καὶ βροῦχος, καὶ ἐρυσίβη, καὶ κάμπη. Ναὶ μὴν ἔτι παραπλησιαστέον τοὺς τοιούτους νηπιόφρονας ἄνδρας παιδίῳ, πορθμεῖον ἔχοντι ἔνδοθι τοῦ λιμένος, καὶ σύνεγγυς τοῦ αἰγιαλοῦ μετὰ παιγμονῆς πλέοντι, καὶ καυχωμένῳ ὁμοίως τοῖς πάντα πεπερακόσι τὰ φοβερὰ πελάγη. Ταῦτα δὲ νυνὶ φήσας λογίζομαι οὐ μετρίως καθάψασθαι τῆς ἡμετέρας οἰήσεως.