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Here begins the prologue. Listen, my son, to the precepts of the master, and incline the ear of your heart; gladly receive the admonition of a devoted father and effectively fulfill it, so that by the labor of obedience you may return to him from whom you had departed through the sloth of disobedience. To you, therefore, my words are now directed, whoever you are who, renouncing your own will, take up the strong and glorious weapons of obedience to do battle for the Lord Christ, the true King. In the first place, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of him with most insistent prayer that he bring it to perfection, so that he who has now deigned to count us among the number of his sons may never be grieved by our evil deeds.
For we must at all times so obey him with the good gifts he has placed in us, that he may never as an angry father disinherit his sons, nor as a dreaded lord, provoked by our evils, hand us over like worthless servants to everlasting punishment—us who would not follow him to glory. Let us then at last arise, since the Scripture rouses us, saying: It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. And with our eyes opened to the deifying light, let us with astonished ears hear the divine voice daily crying out, admonishing us as it says: Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And again: He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And what does it say? Come, my children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you. And the Lord, seeking his laborer in the multitude of the people to whom he cries these things, says again: Who is the man who desires life and longs to see good days? And if, hearing this, you answer, "I do," God says to you: If you wish to have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit; turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. And when you have done these things, my eyes will be upon you and my ears toward your prayers; and before you call upon me, I will say to you: Behold, here I am. What is sweeter to us, dearest brothers, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in his loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life.
Therefore, having girded our loins with faith and the observance of good works, let us walk in his paths under the guidance of the Gospel, that we may be worthy to see him who has called us into his kingdom. If we wish to dwell in the tabernacle of that kingdom, we shall by no means arrive there unless we run thither by good deeds. But let us ask the Lord with the Prophet, saying to him: Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest upon your holy mountain? After this question, brothers, let us hear the Lord answering and showing us the way to that tabernacle, saying: He who walks without blemish and works justice; who speaks truth in his heart, who has practiced no deceit with his tongue;
who has done his neighbor no evil, who has not taken up reproach against his neighbor; who, when the malignant devil suggests something to him, casts him together with his suggestion away from the sight of his heart and reduces him to nothing, and seizes his thoughts while yet small and dashes them against Christ; who, fearing the Lord, do not become exalted over their good observance, but, esteeming that the very good in themselves cannot come from themselves but is wrought by the Lord, glorify the Lord working in them, saying with the Prophet: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. So too the Apostle Paul attributed nothing of his preaching to himself, saying: By the grace of God I am what I am; and again he says: Let him who glories, glory in the Lord.
Whence the Lord also says in the Gospel: Whoever hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon rock; the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded upon rock. Having fulfilled these things, the Lord daily awaits that we should respond to these his holy admonitions by our deeds. Therefore the days of this life are granted to us as a respite for the amendment of our evils, as the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repentance? For the merciful Lord says: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live. When, therefore, brothers, we had questioned the Lord about the dweller in his tabernacle, we heard the precept for dwelling there;
but if we fulfill the duty of a dweller, we shall be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Therefore our hearts and bodies must be made ready to do battle under the obedience of the holy precepts; and as for what our nature finds less possible in us, let us ask the Lord that he command the help of his grace to be supplied to us. And if, fleeing the punishments of hell, we wish to attain everlasting life, then—while there is yet time, and we are in this body, and there is time to fulfill all these things by this life of light—we must run and do now what will profit us for eternity. We must therefore establish a school for the Lord's service. In its founding we hope to establish nothing harsh, nothing burdensome;
but if something a little more strict should appear, as the reasoning of fairness dictates, for the correction of vices or the preservation of charity, do not at once, struck with terror, flee the way of salvation, which can only be begun by a narrow beginning. But as one advances in the monastic life and in faith, the heart is enlarged, and with an unspeakable sweetness of love one runs the way of God's commandments, so that, never departing from his teaching, persevering in his doctrine within the monastery until death, we may share through patience in the sufferings of Christ, and so deserve to be partakers also of his kingdom. Amen. Chapter 1: On the kinds of monks. It is clear that there are four kinds of monks.
The first is that of the cenobites, that is, the monastic kind, serving under a rule and an abbot. The second kind is that of the anchorites, that is, the hermits—those who, not in the first fervor of conversion but through the long testing of the monastery, have learned by the support of many to fight against the devil, and, now well trained, go forth from the brotherly battle-line to the single combat of the desert, secure now without the consolation of another, sufficient with their own hand and arm, by God's help, to fight against the vices of the flesh and of the thoughts.
But the third and most loathsome kind of monks is that of the sarabaites, who, tested by no rule with experience as their teacher, as gold is tested in the furnace, but softened in the nature of lead, still keeping faith with the world by their works, are known to lie to God by their tonsure. These, shut up in twos or threes, or even singly, without a shepherd, in their own sheepfolds and not the Lord's, have for their law the pleasure of their desires; for whatever they think or choose, this they call holy, and what they do not wish, this they consider unlawful.
But the fourth kind of monks is that called gyrovagues, who all their life long lodge as guests in various provinces for three or four days at a time, in the cells of various monks, always wandering and never stable, slaves to their own wills and the enticements of gluttony, and in every way worse than the sarabaites. Concerning the most wretched manner of life of all these, it is better to be silent than to speak. Leaving these aside, then, let us proceed, with the Lord's help, to set in order the most valiant kind, the cenobites. Chapter 2: What kind of man the abbot ought to be. An abbot who is worthy to be set over a monastery ought always to remember what he is called and to fulfill the name of superior by his deeds.
For he is believed to act in the place of Christ in the monastery, since he is called by his very title, as the Apostle says: You have received the spirit of the adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father. Therefore the abbot ought neither to teach, nor to establish, nor to command anything outside the precept of the Lord; but let his command and his teaching be sprinkled like the leaven of divine justice into the minds of his disciples. Let the abbot always be mindful that there will have to be an examination, at God's fearful judgment, of both matters: of his own teaching and of his disciples' obedience. And let the abbot know that whatever profit the householder finds lacking in the sheep is charged to the shepherd's fault.
Likewise it shall be that, if all diligence has been bestowed by the shepherd upon a restless and disobedient flock, and all care has been given to their diseased deeds, their shepherd shall be acquitted at the Lord's judgment and may say to the Lord with the Prophet: I have not hidden your justice in my heart; I have declared your truth and your salvation; but they, despising it, scorned me. And then at last let the punishment for the sheep disobedient to his care be that very death which prevails over them.
Therefore, when anyone takes up the name of abbot, he ought to govern his disciples with a twofold teaching: that is, let him show forth all that is good and holy more by deeds than by words—setting forth the commandments of the Lord by words to those disciples capable of receiving them, but demonstrating the divine precepts by his own deeds to the hard of heart and the simpler. And let him indicate by his own deeds that those things he has taught his disciples to be contrary are not to be done, lest, while preaching to others, he himself be found reprobate; lest at some time God say to him as he prays: Why do you declare my statutes and take my covenant in your mouth? But you have hated discipline and cast my words behind you; and: You who saw the splinter in your brother's eye did not see the beam in your own.
Let no person be given preference in the monastery. Let one not be loved more than another, except him whom he finds better in good works or in obedience. Let not one of free birth be set before one who comes from servitude, unless some other reasonable cause exists. But if, justice so dictating, it seems good to the abbot, he may do so regarding anyone's rank; otherwise, let each keep his own place, because: Whether slave or free, we are all one in Christ and bear an equal rank of service under one Lord, since: With God there is no respect of persons. Only in this respect are we distinguished before him: if we are found better than others in good works and humble. Therefore let an equal charity be shown by him toward all, and let one and the same discipline be applied to all according to their merits.
In his teaching the abbot ought always to keep that apostolic form in which he says: Reprove, entreat, rebuke; that is, mingling times with times, blandishments with terrors, let him show the sternness of a master and the loving affection of a father. That is, he ought more harshly to reprove the undisciplined and restless; but the obedient, the gentle, and the patient he ought to entreat that they advance to better things; while the negligent and contemptuous we admonish him to reprove and correct. And let him not overlook the sins of offenders; but, as soon as they begin to arise, let him cut them off by the roots as far as he is able, mindful of the peril of Eli the priest of Shiloh.
And the more honorable and intelligent souls let him correct with words at the first or second admonition; but the wicked, the hard, the proud, or the disobedient let him restrain by the chastisement of stripes or of the body at the very beginning of their sin, knowing that it is written: The fool is not corrected by words; and again: Strike your son with the rod and you will deliver his soul from death. The abbot ought always to remember what he is, to remember what he is called, and to know that to whom more is committed, of him more is required. And let him know how difficult and arduous a thing he undertakes: to govern souls and to serve the dispositions of many—accommodating himself to one with blandishments, to another with rebukes, to another with persuasions;
and according to each one's character and understanding, let him so conform and adapt himself to all that he may not only suffer no loss in the flock committed to him, but may rejoice in the increase of a good flock. Above all, let him not, dissembling or making light of the salvation of the souls committed to him, take greater care for transitory, earthly, and perishable things; but let him always reflect that he has undertaken souls to govern, of whom he must also render an account. And lest perhaps he complain of scant means, let him remember that it is written: First seek the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you; and again: Nothing is lacking to those who fear him. And let him know that whoever undertakes souls to govern prepares himself to render an account.
And whatever number of brothers he knows he has under his care, let him recognize for certain that on the day of judgment he must render to the Lord an account of all those souls, and without doubt of his own soul as well. And thus, always fearing the coming examination of the shepherd concerning the sheep entrusted to him, while he is cautious about the accounts of others, he is made solicitous about his own; and while by his admonitions he supplies amendment to others, he himself is made amended of his vices. Chapter 3: On summoning the brothers to counsel. Whenever any important matters are to be dealt with in the monastery, let the abbot call together the whole community and state himself what is at issue. And having heard the counsel of the brothers, let him weigh it within himself and do what he judges more useful.
Now we have said that all should be called to counsel for this reason: that the Lord often reveals to a younger one what is better. But let the brothers give their counsel with all subjection of humility, and let them not presume to defend boldly what seems good to them; rather, let the decision depend on the abbot's judgment, so that, whatever he judges more wholesome, all may obey him in it. But just as it befits disciples to obey the master, so too it is fitting for him to arrange all things prudently and justly. In all things, therefore, let all follow the Rule as their master, and let no one rashly deviate from it. Let no one in the monastery follow the will of his own heart. Nor let anyone presume to contend insolently with his abbot, whether within or outside the monastery.
But if anyone should so presume, let him be subject to the discipline of the Rule. Yet let the abbot himself do all things in the fear of God and in observance of the Rule, knowing that beyond doubt he will render an account of all his judgments to God, the most just judge. But if any lesser matters are to be done concerning the interests of the monastery, let him use only the counsel of the seniors, as it is written: Do all things with counsel, and after the deed you will not repent. Chapter 4: What are the instruments of good works. In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength. Then one's neighbor as oneself. Then not to kill. Not to commit adultery. Not to steal. Not to covet. Not to bear false witness. To honor all men.
And what one does not wish done to oneself, let him not do to another. To deny oneself for one's own sake in order to follow Christ. To chastise the body. Not to embrace delights. To love fasting. To relieve the poor. To clothe the naked. To visit the sick. To bury the dead. To help in tribulation. To console the sorrowing. To make oneself a stranger to the deeds of the world. To set nothing before the love of Christ. Not to carry anger into effect. Not to reserve a time for wrath. Not to hold deceit in the heart. Not to make a false peace. Not to forsake charity. Not to swear, lest perhaps one swear falsely. To utter truth from heart and mouth. Not to render evil for evil. Not to do injury, but even to bear patiently injuries done. To love enemies. Not to curse back those who curse oneself, but rather to bless them.
To endure persecution for the sake of justice. Not to be proud. Not given to wine. Not a great eater. Not given to sleep. Not slothful. Not a murmurer. Not a detractor. To commit one's hope to God. When one sees any good in oneself, to attribute it to God, not to oneself. But let him always know the evil done to be his own, and impute it to himself. To fear the day of judgment. To dread hell. To desire eternal life with all spiritual longing. To keep death daily before one's eyes as something suspected. To watch over the deeds of one's life at every hour. To know for certain that in every place God beholds one. To dash at once against Christ the evil thoughts coming into one's heart, and to lay them open to a spiritual elder. To keep one's mouth from evil or wicked speech. Not to love much talking.
Not to speak vain words or such as move to laughter. Not to love much or boisterous laughter. To listen willingly to holy readings. To apply oneself frequently to prayer. To confess one's past evils to God daily in prayer with tears and groaning. To amend those very evils for the future. Not to gratify the desires of the flesh. To hate one's own will. To obey the abbot's commands in all things, even if he himself—which God forbid—should act otherwise, mindful of that command of the Lord: Do what they say, but do not what they do. Not to wish to be called holy before one is, but first to be that which one may more truly be called. To fulfill God's commandments daily by deeds. To love chastity. To hate no one. Not to harbor jealousy. Not to practice envy. Not to love strife.
To flee vainglory. And to reverence the seniors. To love the juniors. In the love of Christ to pray for one's enemies. To return to peace with one at variance before the setting of the sun. And never to despair of God's mercy. Behold, these are the instruments of the spiritual art. When they have been ceaselessly applied by us day and night, and rendered back on the day of judgment, that reward will be repaid to us by the Lord which he himself has promised: What eye has not seen nor ear heard, which God has prepared for those who love him. But the workshop where we are to work all these things diligently is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community. Chapter 5: On obedience. The first degree of humility is obedience without delay.
This befits those who hold nothing dearer to themselves than Christ. Because of the holy service they have professed, or because of the fear of hell or the glory of life everlasting, as soon as anything has been commanded by a superior, they suffer no delay in carrying it out, as though it were commanded by God Himself. Of such the Lord says: "At the hearing of the ear he obeyed me." And again He says to teachers: "He who hears you hears me."
Therefore such as these, leaving at once their own concerns and forsaking their own will, with hands unoccupied and abandoning unfinished whatever they were doing, follow with the ready foot of obedience by their deeds the voice of him who commands; and as though in a single moment the aforesaid command of the master and the completed work of the disciple are both swiftly accomplished together, in the swiftness that comes of the fear of God. Upon those who are urged by the love of attaining life everlasting, therefore, lies the love of pressing forward; and so they seize upon the narrow way, whence the Lord says: "Narrow is the way that leads to life," so that, not living by their own judgment nor obeying their own desires and pleasures, but walking by another's decision and command, dwelling in monasteries they desire to have an abbot set over them.
Without doubt such as these imitate that saying of the Lord in which He says: "I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." But this very obedience will then be acceptable to God and sweet to men, if what is commanded is carried out not with trepidation, not tardily, not lukewarmly, nor with murmuring nor with the reply of one unwilling; for the obedience that is shown to superiors is rendered to God, since He Himself said: "He who hears you hears me." And it ought to be offered by disciples with a good will, for "God loves a cheerful giver." For if a disciple obeys with an ill will, and murmurs not only with his lips but even in his heart, then, although he fulfills the command, it will nevertheless no longer be acceptable to God, who beholds his murmuring heart.
And for such a deed he obtains no grace, but rather incurs the penalty of murmurers, unless he amend it with satisfaction. Chapter 6: On Silence. Let us do what the Prophet says: "I said, I will keep my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I have set a guard upon my mouth; I was dumb and was humbled and kept silence even from good things." Here the Prophet shows that, if for the sake of silence one ought at times to refrain even from good words, how much more ought one to cease from evil words on account of the punishment of sin. Therefore, although for perfect disciples leave to speak rarely is granted concerning good and holy words of edification, on account of the gravity of silence — for it is written, "In much speaking you will not escape sin," and elsewhere:
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue." For to speak and to teach befits the master; to be silent and to listen becomes the disciple. And therefore, if anything must be asked of the superior, let it be asked with all humility and reverent submission. But scurrilities and idle words and such as move laughter, we condemn with a perpetual ban in all places, and we permit no one to open his mouth for such talk. Chapter 7: On Humility. Holy Scripture cries out to us, brothers, saying: "Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted." When it says this, therefore, it shows us that all exaltation is a kind of pride. This the Prophet indicates that he guards against, saying:
"Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up; neither have I walked in great matters, nor in things too wonderful for me." But what then? "If I was not humbly minded, if I exalted my soul: as a child that is weaned upon its mother, so shalt thou requite my soul." Whence, brothers, if we wish to attain the highest summit of humility, and if we wish swiftly to arrive at that heavenly exaltation to which one ascends by the humility of this present life, then by our ascending deeds that ladder must be raised which appeared to Jacob in his dream, by which angels descending and ascending were shown to him. Without doubt that descent and ascent is to be understood by us as nothing other than to descend by exaltation and to ascend by humility.
Now the ladder thus raised is our life in the world, which, when the heart is humbled, is lifted up by the Lord to heaven. The sides of that ladder, we say, are our body and soul, and into these sides the divine calling has inserted the various rungs of humility and discipline for our ascent. The first step of humility, then, is when, setting the fear of God always before his eyes, one wholly shuns forgetfulness and is ever mindful of all that God has commanded, ever turning over in his mind how the hell of fire burns up for their sins those who despise God, and the life everlasting that is prepared for those who fear God.
And keeping himself at every hour from sins and vices — that is, of thoughts, of the tongue, of the hands, of the feet, of his own will, and also of the desires — let a man reckon that he is at all times beheld from heaven by God, and that his deeds in every place are seen by the gaze of the Godhead and at every hour are reported by the angels. The Prophet shows this to us when he declares that God is thus ever present in our thoughts, saying: "God searches the hearts and reins"; and again: "The Lord knows the thoughts of men"; and again he says: "Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar"; and: "For the thought of man shall confess to thee." That he may be watchful concerning his own perverse thoughts, let the useful brother always say in his heart:
"Then shall I be blameless before him, if I keep myself from my iniquity." Moreover, we are forbidden to do our own will, since Scripture says to us: "And turn away from thy own desires." And likewise in prayer we ask God that His will be done in us. Rightly therefore are we taught not to do our own will, when we beware of that which Scripture says: "There are ways which seem right to men, whose end plunges down to the depth of hell"; and when we likewise dread that which is said of the negligent: "They are corrupt and have become abominable in their desires." But in the desires of the flesh, let us believe God to be always present to us, since the Prophet says to the Lord: "Before thee is all my desire."
Therefore evil desire must be guarded against, for death is set beside the entrance of delight. Whence Scripture commands, saying: "Go not after thy lusts." Therefore, if the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil, and the Lord ever looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see whether there is any that understands or seeks after God, and if our deeds are daily, by day and by night, reported to the Lord by the angels appointed to us, then we must be on guard at every hour, brothers, lest, as the Prophet says in the psalm, God should at some hour behold us turning aside to evil and become unprofitable, and — sparing us for this present time, because He is merciful and awaits our turning to better — He should say to us in time to come: "These things thou hast done, and I kept silence."
The second step of humility is when one, not loving his own will, does not take pleasure in fulfilling his own desires, but imitates by his deeds that voice of the Lord which says: "I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." Likewise Scripture says: "Self-will has its punishment, and constraint brings forth the crown." The third step of humility is that, for the love of God, one submit himself in all obedience to a superior, imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says: "He was made obedient even unto death." The fourth step of humility is when, in this very obedience, amid hard and contrary things, or even amid injuries of whatever kind inflicted, the conscience embraces patience in silence, and, enduring, neither grows weary nor departs, since Scripture says:
"He who endures to the end shall be saved." Likewise: "Let thy heart take courage, and wait for the Lord." And to show that the faithful ought to endure all things, even adversities, for the Lord's sake, it says in the person of those who suffer: "For thy sake we are afflicted with death all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." And, secure in the hope of the divine recompense, they continue rejoicing and saying: "But in all these things we overcome, because of him who loved us." And again in another place Scripture says: "Thou hast proved us, O God; thou hast tried us by fire, as silver is tried by fire; thou hast led us into the snare; thou hast laid tribulations upon our back." And, to show that we ought to be under a superior, it goes on to say: "Thou hast set men over our heads."
Moreover, fulfilling the Lord's precept by patience amid adversities and injuries, those who, being struck on one cheek, offer also the other; who, to him who takes away their tunic, surrender also their cloak; who, when forced to go one mile, go two; who with Paul the Apostle endure false brethren and endure persecution, and bless those who curse them. The fifth step of humility is when one, by humble confession, does not conceal from his abbot all the evil thoughts that come into his heart or the wrongs secretly committed by him. Scripture exhorts us concerning this, saying: "Reveal thy way to the Lord and hope in him." And again it says: "Confess to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever." And again the Prophet: