文集 第 1 章 第 1/3 段

I. The Letter of the Holy Presbyter Severus to his sister Claudia, concerning the Last Judgment. Having read your letters, in many ways and through a stirring of affection I could not hold back my tears: for I wept for joy, because from the very wording of your letters I could perceive that you live according to the precepts of the Lord our God; and out of longing for you I could not but grieve, because I was being estranged from you by the greatest injury, had you not sent a letter. Should I then not enjoy such a sister? But I call your salvation to witness: very often I have wished to come to you, but until now I have been hindered, the one who is wont to obstruct standing in the way.

For I was hastening, out of my longing, to satisfy myself in the sight of you, and we seemed likely to carry on the work of our Lord between us along the way, while, each consoling the other and the burden of the world trodden underfoot by us, we might live. But now I do not fix a day or time for coming, because as often as I have fixed one, I have not been able to fulfill it: I shall await the Lord's will, and I hope that by my prayers and yours he may grant us to reap fruit from our being present together. As for the rest—that in all the letters I had sent to you, you desired precepts for your life and faith—I have already, through the constancy of my writings, used up my words: I can now write back nothing new to you that I have not written before.

And indeed, God being gracious, you no longer need to be admonished, you who, consummating faith among first beginnings, display a devout charity in Christ. Yet one thing I do urge: that you do not go back over things already crossed, that you do not desire things despised, that you do not, putting your hand to the plough and turning back, look behind—whereby, the vice surely returning into you, the furrow must needs lose its proper line, nor indeed shall the husbandman receive his reward. Otherwise he does not even attain his portion, if he has ceased in part. For as one must flee from sin to righteousness, so for him who has entered upon righteousness it must be guarded against, lest he lie open to sin. For it is written that to the just man, on the day in which he goes astray, his righteousness shall not profit him.

On this, therefore, we must take our stand; on this we must labour: that we who have escaped our sins may not lose the rewards prepared for us. For the enemy stands ready against us, that he may strike us the moment we are stripped of the shield-boss of faith. The shield, then, must not be thrown away, lest the flank lie open; nor must the sword be lowered, lest the foe begin to lose his fear; but rather, when he sees us armed, he will depart. Nor are we unaware that it is hard and difficult to fight daily against the flesh and the world. Yet if you ponder eternity, if you consider the kingdoms of heaven, which the Lord will surely deign to grant us, sinners though we are, what suffering at last is so worthy that by it we might earn so great a reward? Our struggle in this world is of brief duration; for even if death does not come, old age will come.

The years slip away, the seasons flow on, and, as I hope, the Lord Jesus will swiftly call us, longed-for, to Himself. O how blessed will that departure of ours be, when Christ shall receive us into His own dwelling, cleansed from the stain of sin by the conduct of a better life! The martyrs and prophets will come to meet us, the apostles will join us, the angels will rejoice, the archangels will be glad, and Satan, conquered, will grow pale though his mouth be bloody, since he will have lost even our sins, which he had prepared for himself within us. He will see the glory granted through pardon, the merits honoured through glory; we shall triumph, the enemy overcome. Where then will the wise men of this world appear? Where will the miser, where the adulterer, where the impious, where the drunkard, where the slanderer be found again?

What will the wretched say in their own defence? 「We did not know You, Lord; we did not see that You were in the world; You sent no prophets, You gave no law to the age; we did not see the patriarchs, we did not read the examples of the saints. Your Christ was not on earth, Peter was silent, Paul would not preach, the Evangelist did not teach. There were no martyrs whose examples we might follow; no one foretold Your coming judgment, no one commanded us to clothe the poor, no one bade us restrain lust, no one persuaded us to resist greed; we fell through ignorance, and what we did, we did not knowing.」 Against these, from that choir of the saints, even Noah the righteous will first cry out:

「I, Lord, both proclaimed the flood that was to come because of the sins of men, and after the flood I gave an example of myself to the good, when I did not perish along with the wicked who perished, so that these men might learn both what salvation belongs to the innocent and what punishment to sinners.」 After him faithful Abraham will stand forth. 「I,」 he says, 「Lord, laid the foundation of the faith by which the human race might believe in You, at about the middle age of that world; I was chosen as the father of the nations, whose examples they might follow; I did not hesitate, Lord, to offer Isaac, still a little child, to You as a victim, that these men might recognize that nothing ought to be denied to the Lord, when they understood that I did not spare even my only son:」

「I forsook my land and my kindred at Your bidding, Lord, that to these too there might be an example of forsaking the wickedness of the world and the sins of the age; I, Lord, was the first to acknowledge You, though under a bodily image, and I did not hesitate to believe Him whom I saw, though You appeared to me in another substance, that these men might understand that judgment is to be made not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.」 To him blessed Moses will respond: 「I, Lord, delivered the law to all these at Your command, that those whom free faith did not hold, the law at least, once spoken, might restrain; I said, 'You shall not commit adultery,' to check the license of fornication; I said, 'You shall love your neighbour,' that charity might abound:」

「I said, 'You shall serve the Lord alone,' lest these men sacrifice to idols or suffer there to be temples. I decreed that no false testimony should be given, that I might shut the mouths of these men against every lie. I set forth the deeds and words from the beginning of the world, the Spirit of Your power working in me, that the knowledge of things past might impart to these men the teaching of things to come. I proclaimed that You, Lord Jesus, would come, that it might be no unforeseen thing for these men to recognize Him whose coming I had foretold beforehand.」 After him will stand one worthy of his Lord, of the seed of David: 「I, Lord, announced You in all things; I cried aloud that Your name alone was to be served:」

「I said, 'Blessed is the man who fears the Lord'; I said, 'The saints shall exult in glory'; I said, 'The desire of sinners shall perish,' that these men might acknowledge You and cease from sinning. I, though endowed with royal power, having put off the emblems of my magnificence, lay prostrate upon my garments, covered with sackcloth and strewn with dust, that an example of meekness and humility might be given to these men. I spared my enemies, who longed to slay me, that these men might prove my mercy worthy of imitation.」 After him Isaiah, worthy of the Spirit of God, will not be silent. 「I, Lord, You speaking through my mouth, forewarned: 'Woe to those who join house to house,' that I might set a limit to covetousness.」

「I bore witness that Your wrath had come upon sinners, that the fear of punishments, if not the hope of rewards, might at least restrain these men from their evil deeds.」 After these and many others, who rendered to us the offices of teaching, the Son of God Himself will speak these words:

「I, indeed, exalted upon a lofty throne, holding heaven in My palm and the earth in My fist, diffused within and without, more inward than all things that are begotten and more outward than all things that move, inestimable, infinite in the power of My nature, invisible to sight, incomprehensible to touch—that among you, to tame the hardness of your heart and to soften your perfidy by saving teachings, I might become the least of you, deigned to be born in the flesh; and having laid aside the glory of God, I took on the appearance of a servant's form, so that, having shared with you the weakness of the body, I might in turn admit you, through obedience to the precept of salvation, into the fellowship of My glory.

To all the sick and infirm I restored health, hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, voice to the dumb, the use of their feet to the lame, that I might move you by heavenly signs, so that you might more easily believe in Me and in the things I had proclaimed. I promised you the kingdoms of heaven; I also, that you might have an example of remission, placed the thief, who confessed Me at the time of his own death, in paradise, that you might follow even the faith of him who had merited that his sins be forgiven him. And that by My example you yourselves might also be able to suffer for one another, I suffered for you, that man might not hesitate to suffer for man what God endured for man. I showed Myself after the resurrection, lest your faith be confounded.

In Peter I admonished the Jews, in Paul I preached to the Gentiles; nor do I regret it: there is fruit of the good. The good understood My work, the faithful accomplished it, the just fulfilled it, the merciful brought it to completion; and a great part of the martyrs is theirs, a great part of the saints. Surely these others too were in the same body, in the same world. Why do I find no good work in you, O brood of viper's stock? You have not done penance for your evils even on the last day of your end. But what does it avail that you adore Me with your lips, if by deeds and works you deny Me? Where now are your riches, where your honours, where your power, where are your pleasures? I lay no new sentence upon you: you have the judgment which I foretold before.」

Then the Evangelist will recite to the wretched that word: 「Cast them into the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.」 O wretches, whom these things do not move: they will see their own punishment and the glory of others. Let them enjoy the world, since they will not enjoy that eternity which is prepared for the saints; let them abound in riches, let them lie upon gold, while there they will be found needy, there destitute; let them be rich in the world, while in eternity they will be poor, of whom it is written: 「The rich have wanted and have hungered.」 But of the good the Scripture has added what follows: 「Those who seek the Lord, however, shall not be deprived of any good thing.」

And so, sister, although these people mock us, although they call us foolish and unhappy, let us rejoice the more happily in the reproaches by which glory is heaped upon us, and punishment upon them. Nor let us laugh at their folly, but rather let us grieve over their unhappiness, since among them is a great part of our own, whom, if we are able to win them, glory is increased in us. But let them do as they will, let them be to us as Gentiles and tax-collectors; but let us guard ourselves safe and unharmed. If they now rejoice while we grieve, we shall afterward rejoice in their grief. Farewell, sister most dear and most beloved in Christ. [A = Extracts in the acts of the Council of Aachen (a. 816). C = Cambridge codex.]

[H = the text of Lucas Holstenius in the Appendix to the Codex Regularum (Paris, 1663), p. 8 and following, where the letter is thus titled: 'Athanasius's Exhortation to the Bride of Christ.' R = the Roman Reginensis codex, no. 140. V = the Vienna codex, Theol. 664. ed. Vall. = the text of Vallarsi in the Appendix to the works of St. Jerome, XI, p. 127 and following. b = the edition of Baluze. From H we have noted only those readings which differ from the readings of the Reginensis codex; cf. the Preface, n.] The Letter of St. Severus to his sister Claudia, on Virginity.

How great a blessedness in heavenly things holy virginity possesses, we are taught, beyond the testimonies of the Scriptures, also by the custom of the Church, by which we learn that a special merit belongs to those whose consecration is distinctive. For although the whole multitude of believers receives equal gifts of grace and all glory in the same blessings of the sacraments, these have something of their own beyond the rest, since out of that holy and spotless flock of the Church they are chosen by the Holy Spirit, as it were the holier and purer victims, according to the merits of their own will, and are offered at the altar by the high priest of God. A worthy offering indeed to the Lord is the oblation of so precious a living thing, and none more pleasing to Him than a victim that is His own image.

For it is concerning such as these that I think the Apostle especially spoke: 「But I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living victim, holy, well-pleasing to God.」 Virginity therefore possesses both what others have and what others do not have, since it obtains both the common and the special grace, and rejoices, so to speak, in the proper privilege of consecration. For ecclesiastical authority permits us to call virgins the brides of Christ, since after the manner of brides it veils those whom it consecrates to the Lord, showing that they especially will have a spiritual marriage, who have shunned bodily union.

And worthily for God, through the comparison of matrimony, are they spiritually united who, for the sake of His love, have spurned human marriages. In them is most fully accomplished that saying of the Apostle: 「But he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit.」 For it is a great thing and immortal, almost beyond bodily nature, to lull lust to sleep and to quench by strength of soul the flame of concupiscence kindled by the torches of youth, by spiritual effort to shut out the force of innate pleasure, to live against the manner of the human race, to despise the solaces of marriage, to scorn the sweetness of children, and to count as nothing, in hope of future blessedness, whatever can be the advantages of the present life.

Great, as I have said, and admirable is this virtue, and not undeservedly destined, in proportion to the greatness of its labour, for an immense reward. 「I will give,」 says the Lord, 「to the eunuchs in My house and within My walls a place named better than that of sons and daughters; an everlasting name will I give them, and it shall not fail.」 Concerning which eunuchs the Lord repeats in the Gospel, saying: 「For there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.」 Great indeed is the labour of chastity, but greater is the reward—a guarding for a time, but a recompense eternal. For of these too the blessed Apostle John speaks, that they follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

Which I think is to be understood thus: that no place in the heavenly court is to be closed to them, and that all the dwellings of the divine mansions are to be opened to them. But that the merit of virginity may shine forth more illustriously, and that it may be more manifestly understood how worthy it is of God, let this be considered: that the Lord and our Saviour, God, when for the salvation of the human race He deigned to take up manhood, chose no other than a virginal womb, that He might show that virtue of this kind is most pleasing to Himself; and that He might commend the good of chastity to both sexes, He had a virgin mother, Himself destined to remain a virgin:

In Himself He furnished an example of virginity to men, and in His mother to women, whereby it might be shown that in both sexes the blessed and perfect fullness of divinity deigned to dwell, since the whole of what dwelt in the Son was present in the mother. But why do I labour to reveal the excellent and lofty merit of chastity and to display the glorious good of virginity, when I am not unaware that many have spoken at length on this matter and have proved its blessedness by the clearest arguments, and when it cannot come into doubt for any wise man that that thing is of greater merit which is of greater labour? For whoever esteems chastity as of no reward or of little, it is certain that he either is ignorant of it or does not bear its labour willingly.

Whence those always disparage chastity who either do not have it or are compelled to have it against their will. Now therefore, since—though briefly—we have shown both the labour and the merit of integrity, lest a thing which both consists in great virtue and is destined for an immense reward should be able to lack its fruit, we must keep watch more diligently. For the more precious any kind of thing is, the greater the care with which it is guarded.

And since there are many things which lack their own good unless they are aided by the help of other things—as is the case with the substance of honey, which, unless it is preserved by the protection of the wax and the cells of the combs and, to speak more truly, is nourished, loses its natural grace and cannot subsist by itself; as also with the substance of wine, which, unless it is cherished in vessels of good odour repaired often with pitch, loses the force of its innate sweetness—it must be more attentively provided for, lest perhaps there be also certain things necessary to virginity, without which it can by no means suffice to bear fruit, and so great a labour should profit nothing, while it is vainly believed to profit when it is possessed apart from the necessary things.

For unless I am mistaken, the integrity of chastity is kept for the sake of the reward of the heavenly kingdom, which it is sufficiently certain that no one can attain without the merit of eternal life. But that eternal life can be merited only through the keeping of all the divine precepts, the Scripture testifies, saying: 「If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments.」 Therefore he does not have life except he who has kept all the commandments of the law; and he who has not had life cannot be a possessor of the heavenly kingdom, in which not the dead but the living shall reign. Therefore virginity alone, which hopes for the glory of the heavenly kingdom, will profit nothing, unless it has also that to which perpetual life is promised, through which the reward of the heavenly kingdom is possessed.

Before all things, therefore, the precepts of the commandments are to be kept by those who preserve chastity and integrity and who hope for its recompense from the justice of God, lest the labour of glorious chastity and continence be brought to nothing. That virginity is above commandment or precept, no wise man is ignorant from the law, the Apostle saying: 「But concerning virgins I have no precept of the Lord, but I give counsel.」 Since therefore he gives counsel for obtaining virginity, and does not establish a precept, he has professed it to be above commandment. Whoever therefore preserve virginity do more than what is commanded. For then it will profit to have done more than was bidden, if you do what is bidden.

For how will you boast of having done more, if you do not do something that is less? Desiring to fulfil the divine counsel, before all things keep the commandment; wishing to obtain the reward of virginity, embrace the merits of life, that there may be something whose chastity can be recompensed. For as the observance of the commandments confers life, so on the contrary their transgression begets death. And he who through transgression has been adjudged to death will not be able to hope for the crown of virginity, nor, set in punishment, to await the reward of chastity. For there are three kinds of virtues through which the possession of the heavenly kingdom is entered:

The first is chastity, the second is contempt of the world, the third indeed is righteousness; which, when joined together, profit their possessors most, but, when divided, can hardly profit, since each one of them is demanded not for its own sake only, but for the sake of another. First, then, chastity is sought, that contempt of the world may more easily follow, since the world can more lightly be despised by those who are not held by the bonds of matrimony. But contempt of the world is required that righteousness may be preserved, which those can hardly fulfil who are entangled in the desires of worldly goods and the affairs of worldly pleasures. Whoever therefore possesses the first kind, chastity, and does not obtain the second, which is contempt of the world, almost without cause

he possesses the first, when he does not have the second, for the sake of which the first was sought. And if he should have the first and the second, but lack the third, which is righteousness, he labours in vain, since the two former are required chiefly for the sake of the third. For what does it profit to have chastity for the sake of contempt of the world, and not to have that for the sake of which you have it? Or why should you despise the things of the world, if you do not keep righteousness, for the sake of which it befits you to have chastity, for the sake of which to have contempt of the world? For as the first kind is for the sake of the second, so the first and second are for the sake of the third; and if this be lacking, neither the first nor the second will profit. You say perhaps:

「Teach me, then, what righteousness is, that, if I come to know it, I may more easily be able to fulfil it.」 I will say it briefly, as best I can, and I will use the simplicity of common words, because the matter of which we treat is such as ought by no means to be obscured by the more eloquent discourses of fine speech, but to be laid open by the simpler narrations of plain expression. For a thing necessary to all in common ought to be shown in common speech. Righteousness, then, is nothing other than not to sin, and not to sin is to keep the precepts of the law. But the observance of the precepts is guarded by a twofold kind: that you do nothing of those things which are forbidden, and that you strive to fulfil all things which are commanded. This is what He says: 「Turn away from evil and do good.」

For I would not have you think that righteousness consists in this, that you do not do evil, since not to do good is also evil, and in both cases a transgression of the law is committed; for He who said 'Turn away from evil' is the same who said 'and do good.' If you have turned away from evil and have not done good, you are a transgressor of the law, which is fulfilled not only in the abomination of evil acts, but also in the perfecting of good works. For this alone is not enjoined upon you, that you do not strip the clothed of their garments, but also that you clothe the naked with your own; not that you do not take away his bread from one who has it, but also that you freely impart your own to one who has none; not only that you do not drive the poor from his lodging, but that you receive into your own one who is cast out and has none.

For it is enjoined upon us to weep with those who weep. How do we weep with them, if we share in none of their necessities, nor furnish them any help in those matters for which they shed tears? For God does not seek the fruitless moisture of our weeping, but because tears are a sign of grief, He wills you so to feel another's distresses as your own. And as you would wish to be relieved, if you were in such tribulation, so do you yourself relieve another, on account of that saying: 「Whatever good you wish men to do to you, do you also to them.」 For to weep with one who weeps and to be unwilling, when you can, to render aid to the one who weeps, is a sign of mockery, not of piety.

In short, our Saviour, with Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus, both gave a sign and showed the affection of His immense mercy by the testimony of His tears. And the signs of true piety were soon followed by works, when Lazarus, raised up—for whose sake the tears were shed—was restored to his sisters. This was piously to weep with those who weep: to take away the occasion of weeping. But, you will say, He did it as one who is powerful. Yet nothing impossible is commanded of you either: he has fulfilled all things who has done what he could.

But as we had begun to say, it does not suffice for a Christian to abstain from evils, unless he also perfects the offices of good works; which is proved especially by that testimony in which the Lord threatens that those will be liable to eternal fire who, although they have done nothing evil, have not done all that is good, saying: 「Then the King will say to those on His left: 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which My Father has prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink,' and the rest.」 He did not say: 「'Depart from Me, you cursed, because you committed murder, because adultery, or because thefts':」

For not because they had done evil, but because they had not done good, are they condemned and consigned to the torments of eternal Gehenna; not because they had committed what was forbidden, but because they were unwilling to fulfil what was commanded. Whence it is to be observed what hope they can have who still do some of those things which are forbidden, when even those are guilty of eternal fire who did not do what is commanded. For I would not have you flatter yourself in this, that if you have not done some things, because you have done some, since it is written: 「Whoever shall have kept the whole law, but offend in one point, has become guilty of all.」 For Adam sinned once and died; and do you think that you can live, often committing that which killed another when he had perpetrated it but once?

Or do you think he committed so great a crime, that he was deservedly condemned to a sharper punishment? Let us see, then, what he did: contrary to the commandment he ate of the fruit of the tree. What then? Did God punish man with death on account of the fruit of the tree? Not on account of the fruit of the tree, but on account of contempt of the commandment. Therefore it is not a question of the quality of the sin, but of the transgression of the commandment. And He who said to Adam that he should not eat of the fruit of the tree, He Himself enjoins you that you should not curse, not lie, not detract, not listen to one who detracts, that you should not swear at all, that you should not covet, not envy, not be lukewarm, not be greedy, that you should render to no one evil for evil, that you should love your enemies, that you should bless those who curse you,

that you should pray for those who slander and persecute you, that to one who strikes you on the cheek you should offer the other, that in a secular court you should not go to law, that if anyone should wish to take away what is yours, you should let it go gladly, that you should admit into your breast neither the evil of anger nor of jealousy nor of envy, that you should flee the crime of greed, that you should beware of all the evil of pride and boasting, and that you should live humble and meek after the example of Christ, shunning the company of the wicked so far that you do not even take food with fornicators, or the greedy, or slanderers, or the envious, or detractors, or drunkards, or the rapacious. And if you despise Him in any of these, then if He spared Adam, He will spare you also.

Nay rather, he ought the more to have been spared, who was still untrained and new, and was held back by the example of no one previously sinning and dying on account of his sin. But you, if after so many proofs—after the law, after the prophets, after the gospels, after the apostles—you should be willing to transgress, how indulgence could be granted you, I do not know. Do you flatter yourself on the prerogative of virginity? Remember that Adam and Eve sinned as virgins, and that integrity of body did not profit them when they sinned. The virgin who sins is to be compared with Eve, not with Mary. We do not deny the remedy of penance in the present time, but we rather exhort that one ought to hope for the reward rather than for pardon.