Auctores Varii, DE VITIS PATRUM LIBRI DECEM / Vitae Patrum sive Historiae Eremiticae Libri Decem

CAP. VIII. — Relutus ergo, juxta consuetudinem solus iterum permanebat; et stare quidem propter recentes plagas non poterat, orans vero prostratus, post orationem clara voce dicebat: Ecce hic sum ego Antonius, non fugio vestra certamina, etiamsi majora faciatis, nullus me separabita charitate Christi (Rom. VIII). Psallebatque dicens: Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit Cor meum (Psal. xxvi). Talia eo dicente. bonorum hostis diabolus, admiratus quod post tot verbera fuisset ausus reverti, congregatis canibus suis, et proprio se furore dilanians : Videtis, ait, quia nec spiritu fornicationis, nec corporis doloribus superatus, insuper audacter lacessit nos. Omnia arma corripite, acrius a nobis impugnandus est. Sentiat, sentiat. Debet scire quos provocet. Dixit, et ad hortantis vocem audientium turba consensit, quia innumeras diabolus habet artes nocendi. Sonitus igitur repentinus increpuit, ita ut locofunditus agitato, et parietibus patefactis, multifaria daemonum exinde turba se effunderet ; nam et bestiarum et serpentium formas induentes, omnem protinus locum replevere phantasiis 39 leonum, taurorum, luporum, aspidum, serpentium, scorpionum, necnon et pardorum atque ursorum. Et hæc singula secundum suam fremebant naturam. Rugiebat leo, occidere volens ; taurus mugitu et cornibus minabatur; serpens sibilo personabat; luporum impetusingerebantur; pardus discoloriter 19) auctoris sui calliditates varias indicabat. Truces omnium vultus, et vocis horridae dirusauditus. Antonius flagellatus atque confossus sentiebat quidem asperiores corporis dolores, sed imperterritus durabat mente pervigili. Et licet gemitum vulnera carnis exprimerent, sensu tamen idem permanens, quasi de inimi- . cis luderet, loquebatur: Si virium aliquid haberetis, sufficeret unus ad praelium ; sed quoniam Domino vos enervante frangimini, multitudine tentatis inferre terrores, cum hoc ipsum infirmitatis indicium sit, quod irrationabiliuminduitisformasbestiarum. Rursumque confidens, aiebat: Si quid valetis, si vobis in me potestatem Dominus dedit, ecce præsto sum, devorateconcessum. Si vero non potestis, cur frustra nitimini ? Signum enim crucis et fides ad Dominum, inexpugnabilis nobis murus est. Multa contra sanctum Antonium minantes, fremebant dentibus suis, quod nullus eorum tentamenta consequeretur egectus, sed maxime e contrario gigneretur illusio.

CHAP. VIII. — So, carried back, he remained alone again as was his custom; and he could not stand because of his fresh wounds, but praying prostrate, after the prayer he said in a clear voice: Here I am, I, Antony; I do not flee your contests; even if you make them greater, nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ (Rom. 8). And he sang psalms, saying: Though camps be set against me, my heart shall not fear (Ps. 26). As he said such things, the devil, enemy of the good, amazed that after so many blows he had dared to return, gathered his hounds and, tearing at himself in his own fury, said: You see that, overcome neither by the spirit of fornication nor by the pains of the body, he even boldly provokes us. Seize every weapon; he must be attacked by us more fiercely. Let him feel it, let him feel it. He must learn whom he is provoking. He spoke, and at the voice of the one urging them on the crowd of listeners agreed, for the devil has countless arts of doing harm. So a sudden noise crashed out, so that the place was shaken to its foundations and the walls were laid open, and a manifold crowd of demons poured out from there; for, putting on the forms of beasts and of serpents, they at once filled the whole place with phantoms of lions, bulls, wolves, asps, serpents, scorpions, and also of leopards and bears. And each of these raged according to its own nature. The lion roared, wanting to kill; the bull threatened with bellowing and horns; the serpent resounded with hissing; the wolves hurled their rushes at him; the leopard with its mottled colours displayed the varied cunning of its maker. Savage were the faces of all, and dreadful to hear their bristling voices. Antony, scourged and pierced, felt the harsher pains of the body, but undaunted he held out with a watchful mind. And though the wounds of his flesh forced out a groan, yet remaining the same in mind, as though he were mocking his enemies, he said: If you had any strength, one of you would be enough for the battle; but since you are broken, the Lord having sapped your strength, you try to bring terror by numbers, when this itself is a sign of weakness, that you put on the forms of irrational beasts. And again, full of confidence, he said: If you have any power, if the Lord has given you power over me, here I am, ready: devour what has been granted. But if you cannot, why do you strive in vain? For the sign of the cross and faith toward the Lord are an impregnable wall for us. Threatening much against holy Antony, they gnashed their teeth, because no effect followed their assaults, but rather, quite the contrary, only mockery [of themselves] came of it.

43. Illud etiam ad fidem confirmatum nobis de eo est ab his qui ex ore ejus audierunt,quoniamquodam tempore nocte in specie monachi daemon ad ostium cellulae ejus pulsaverit, dicens: Surge, abba Macari, et eamus ad collectam, ubi fratres ad vigilias congregantur (Ruffin., /. II, cap. 29, ad verbum). Sed ille gratia Dei repletus falli non potuit; intellexit enim diaboli esse fallaciam, et ait: 0 mendax, et veritatis inimice; quid enim tibi consortii, quid societatisest cum collecta et congregatione sanctorum? At ille ait: Latet ergo te, o Macari, quod sine nobis nulla collecta 308 agitur ,nullave congregatio monachorum? veni denique, et videbis ibi operam nostram. Dixit autemsanctus Macarius: Imperet tibi Dominus,dæ-] mon immunde (Judw epist.). Et conversus ad orationem, petiit a Domino ut sibi ostenderet si hoc verum esset, quod gloriatus est daemon. Abiit ergo ad collectam,ubi jam vigiliae a fratribus celebrabantur. et iterum in oratione Dominum deprecabatur, ut ei veritatem verbi hujus ostenderet; et ecce videt quasi parvulos quosdam pueros Æthiopes nigros per totam ecclesiam discurrere huc atque illuc, et velut volitando deferri. Discurrentes autem illi iEthiopes pueri, singulis quibusque fratribus in oratione positis atque psallentibus alludebant, et si cui de eis oculos duobus digitulis compressissent, statim dormiebat; si cui vero in os immersissent digitum, oscitare eum faciebant. Item post psalmum, cum ad orandum se projecissent fratres, percurrebant iterum singulos, etante alium quidem jacentem in oratione, quasi in mulieris speciem vertebantur, ante alium quasi aedificantes, et portantes aliquid, aut diversa quaeque agentes apparebant; et quæcunque daemones quasi ludentes formassent,hæc orantes illi in cordis ibi cogitatione versabant. Ab aliquantis tamen fratribus, ubi aliquid horum agere ccepissent, quasi violenterrepulsi, praecipitati dejiciebantur, ita ut nec an:e eos stare aut transire auderent, aliis vero etiam supra cervices et dorsa ludebant. Haec cum vidisset sanctus Macarius, ingemuit graviter, et lacrymas profundens ad Deum, dixit: Respice, Domine, et ne sileas, neque mitigeris Deus; sed exsur- ge, et dispergantur inimici tui, et fugianta facie tua, quoniam anima nostrarepleta est illusionibus (PJal. LXXXII, LXXXVII). Post orationem autem examinande veritatis gratia, seorsum vocatis singulis quibusque fratribus, ante quorum faciem viderat dæmones diverso habitu et variis imaginibus ludentes requirit ab eis si in oratione vel aedificandi cogitationes habuerint, vel iter agendi, vel alia diversa, quæ unicuique per daemones imaginata viderat: et singuii eorum ita confitebantur in corde suo fuisse cogitationes, sicut ille arguebat. Et tunc vere intellectum est, quod omnes malae et superfluae, et vanæ cogitationes, quae vel psallentes, vel somniorum aut orationum tempore unusquisque in corde suo conceperit, illusione et instinctu daemonum fiant. Nam ab his qui omni custodia servant in timore et amore Domini cor suum,illi tenebrosi iEthiopes, et hae quas emittunt cogitationes repelluntur; Christo enim mens conjuncta, et praecipue in tempore orationis intenta, nihil malum, nihilque superfluum recipit.

43. This too was confirmed to us as true about him by those who heard it from his own mouth: that once, at night, a demon in the guise of a monk knocked at the door of his cell, saying: Get up, Abba Macarius, and let us go to the assembly, where the brothers are gathering for the vigils (Rufinus, bk. 2, ch. 29, word for word). But he, filled with the grace of God, could not be deceived; for he understood that it was the devil's deceit, and said: O liar and enemy of the truth, what fellowship, what partnership do you have with the assembly and gathering of the saints? But he said: Do you not know, then, Macarius, that no assembly is held without us, nor any gathering of monks? Come, then, and you will see our work there. Holy Macarius said: The Lord rebuke you, unclean demon (Epistle of Jude). And turning to prayer, he asked the Lord to show him whether what the demon had boasted was true. So he went to the assembly, where the vigils were already being celebrated by the brothers, and again in prayer he besought the Lord to show him the truth of this word; and behold, he sees what seemed to be little black Ethiopian boys running about here and there through the whole church, and being carried along as if flying. These Ethiopian boys, running about, played tricks on each of the brothers as they stood in prayer and sang psalms; and if they pressed anyone's eyes with two little fingers, he at once fell asleep; and if they put a finger into anyone's mouth, they made him yawn. Likewise, after the psalm, when the brothers had thrown themselves down to pray, they ran round to each one again; before one lying in prayer they turned themselves as it were into the form of a woman, before another they appeared as if building and carrying something, or doing all sorts of different things; and whatever the demons, as if at play, had shaped, those men at prayer turned over there in the thoughts of their hearts. By some of the brothers, however, as soon as they began to do any of these things, they were driven back as if by force and flung headlong down, so that they did not dare even to stand or pass before them; but on others they even played upon their necks and backs. When holy Macarius saw this, he groaned deeply and, pouring out tears to God, said: Look, Lord, and do not keep silent, and do not be still, O God; but arise, and let your enemies be scattered and flee from your face, for our soul is filled with illusions (Psalms 82, 87). After the prayer, to test the truth, he called aside each of the brothers before whose faces he had seen the demons playing in different guises and various images, and asked them whether during prayer they had had thoughts of building, or of making a journey, or of other different things, which he had seen pictured for each of them by the demons; and each of them confessed that the thoughts had been in his heart just as he charged. And then it was truly understood that all the evil, superfluous and vain thoughts which anyone conceives in his heart, whether while singing psalms or at the time of dreams or of prayers, come about through the illusion and prompting of demons. For by those who guard their heart with all vigilance in the fear and love of the Lord, those dark Ethiopians and the thoughts they send out are driven back; for a mind joined to Christ, and especially intent at the time of prayer, takes in nothing evil and nothing superfluous.

23. Venit quidam in Scythi aliquando, ut fieret monachus. Qui etiam attulit filium suum nuper ablactatum. Qui cum factus esset juvenis, coeperunt impugnare daomones et sollicitare eum. Et dixit patri suo: Vado ad saeculum, quia non possum carnales concupiscentias sustinere. Pater autem ejus consolabatur eum. Dixit ergo ille juvenis: Jum sustinere non valeo, pater; dimitte me redire ad saeculum. Dixit ei pater suus : Audi me, fili, adhuc semel, et tolle tibi quadringinta panes, et folia palmarum dierum quadraginta et vade in eremo interiore, et esto ibi quadraginta diebus, et voluntas Dei fiet. Qui obediens patri suo, surrexit et abiit in eremo: et mansit ibi, laborans et faciens plectas de palmis siccis, et panem siccum comedens. Et cum ibi diebus viginti quiesceret, ecce vidit opus quoddam diabolicum venire super se ; et stetit coram ipso velut mulier Æthiopissa, fetida et turpis aspectu, ita ut fetorem ejus sufferrenon posset, et abjiciebat eam a se. Et illa dicebat ei: Ego sum quae in cordibus hominum dulcis appareo ; sed propter obedientiam tuam, et laborem quem sustines, non me permisit Deus seducere te, sed innotui tibi fetorem meum. Ille autem surrexit, et gratias agens Deo, venit ad patrem suum, etdixit ei: Jam nolo ire ad saeculum, pater. Vidi enim operationem diaboli et fetorem ejus. Cognoverat autem et pater ejus de hoc ipso, et dixitei: Si mansisses quadraginta dies, et custodisses usque in finem mandatum meum, majora habuisti videre.

23. A man once came to Scetis to become a monk. He also brought his son, newly weaned. When the son had become a young man, demons began to attack and tempt him. And he said to his father: I am going back to the world, because I cannot endure the desires of the flesh. His father comforted him. Then the young man said: I can no longer endure it, father; let me go back to the world. His father said to him: Listen to me, son, once more: take forty loaves and palm leaves for forty days, and go into the inner desert, and stay there forty days, and the will of God will be done. Obeying his father, he got up and went into the desert, and stayed there, working and making plaits of dry palm and eating dry bread. And when he had stayed there quietly for twenty days, behold, he saw a work of the devil coming upon him; and there stood before him what seemed an Ethiopian woman, stinking and foul to look at, so that he could not bear her stench, and he thrust her away from him. And she said to him: I am she who appears sweet in the hearts of men; but because of your obedience and the labour you endure, God has not permitted me to seduce you, but I have made my stench known to you. He got up and, giving thanks to God, came to his father and said to him: I no longer want to go to the world, father. For I have seen the working of the devil and his stench. His father too had known of this very thing, and said to him: If you had stayed forty days and kept my command to the end, you would have seen greater things.

Hoc quoque narravit Cronius illa nocte magnum eis narrasse Antonium : Ego, aiebat, anno integro oraveram ut revelaretur mihi locus justorum et peccatorum(Supral. I, in Vita S. Antonii, c. 38; Pasch., c. 19,>i. 4). Vidi autem gigantem nigrum altissimum, qui ad nubes usque pertingebat, habebat autem manus ad coelum usque extensas : infra autem erat lacus qui mare aequabat magnitudine. Vidi quoque animas tanquam aves sursum volantes; et quaecunque quidem ejus manus et caput supervolabant, servabantur ab angelis ; quae autem a manibus ejus verberabantur, incidebant in lacum. Ad me itaque vox pervenit, quae dicebat : Quas vides animas supervolasse caput gigantis et ejus manus, eae sunt animae justorum, quae quidem ab angelis servantur in paradiso : quae autem a manibus nigri percutiuntur, ese in inferno demerguntur. Quae quidem attractae fuerunt a voluntate carnis, etodiumsecutaesunt, et referendae injuriae cupiditatem.

Cronius also related that on that night the great Antony had told them this: I, he said, had prayed for a whole year that the place of the righteous and of sinners might be revealed to me (above, bk. 1, in the Life of St Antony, ch. 38; Paschasius, ch. 19, no. 4). And I saw a very tall black giant, who reached right up to the clouds, and he had his hands stretched out right up to heaven; and below him was a lake that equalled the sea in size. I also saw souls flying upward like birds; and whichever flew over his hands and head were kept safe by angels, but those that were struck by his hands fell into the lake. Then a voice came to me, which said: The souls you see that have flown over the giant's head and his hands are the souls of the righteous, which are kept by angels in paradise; but those that are struck by the hands of the black one are plunged into hell. These are the ones that were drawn by the will of the flesh, and followed hatred and the desire to repay injury.

Mulier quaedam genere nobilis, simul cum viro intemperante trahensjugum matrimonii, venitad beatum illum hominem, deflens propriam calamitatem. Dicebat enim, maritum concubinæ captum consuetudine, magicis quibusdam praestigiis fuisse incantatum, et odio habere ipsam legitimo matrimonioconjunctam. Hæc autem dicebatmulierstans pro foribus atrii; sic enim solebat colloqui eum femina, nullam enim unquam admisit intra fores. Tunc ergo mulieris misertus ejulantis, oratione incantalionis abolet operativnem : et cum olei guttura ab ipsa allatum invocatione divinasanctificasset, jussituteoungeretur. Hæc praecepta cum implesset mulier, conjugis amorem in se transtulit, et persuasit ut pro illegitimo legitimum cubile eligeret.

A certain woman of noble birth, who bore the yoke of marriage together with a dissolute husband, came to that blessed man, bewailing her own misfortune. For she said that her husband, captivated by his intimacy with a concubine, had been bewitched by certain magical tricks, and hated her, who was joined to him in lawful marriage. The woman said this standing before the doors of the forecourt; for that is how he used to speak with a woman: he never admitted any woman within his doors. Then, taking pity on the wailing woman, he abolished the working of the spell by prayer; and when he had sanctified with divine invocation a flask of oil she had brought, he ordered that she be anointed with it. When the woman had carried out these instructions, she turned her husband's love toward herself, and persuaded him to choose the lawful bed instead of the unlawful one.