The Institutes 3.1–4.12

I think that the measure of the night prayers and psalms kept throughout Egypt has now been dealt with, by God's gift, as far as the slenderness of our ability allowed. Now we must discuss the services of the third, sixth, and ninth hours according to the rule of the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia, tempering, as we said in the preface, the perfection of the Egyptians and the inimitable rigour of their discipline by the institutions of these others.

For among the Egyptians these offices, which we are compelled to render to the Lord at separate hours and intervals of time at the summons of the one who calls us, are celebrated continually and voluntarily throughout the whole day, together with work. For manual work is done by them unceasingly in private in their cells in such a way that meditation on the psalms or the other Scriptures is never entirely omitted; and mingling prayers and petitions with it at every moment, they spend the whole day in those offices which we celebrate at fixed times. Therefore, apart from the evening and night gatherings, no public service is held among them during the day except on Saturday and Sunday, when they gather at the third hour for Holy Communion. For what is offered unceasingly is more than what is paid at intervals of time, and a voluntary gift is more pleasing than duties rendered by canonical compulsion; for this David too rejoices somewhat more gloriously when he says, "I will sacrifice to you willingly," and, "Let the free offerings of my mouth be pleasing to you, O Lord."

So in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and the whole East the services of the hours mentioned above are completed daily with three psalms each, so that constant prayer may be offered to God at fixed times, and yet the necessary duties of work may in no way be hindered, since the spiritual services are completed with fair moderation. For we know that the prophet Daniel too poured out his prayers to the Lord daily at these three times, with the windows open in his upper room. And not without reason have these times been assigned more especially to religious offices, since in them the fulfilment of the promises and the sum of our salvation were accomplished. For it is shown that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, promised of old through the prophets, first descended on the apostles when they were engaged in the office of prayer. For when, because of the speaking in tongues that flowed from them through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the unbelieving people of the Jews, both astonished and mocking, said that they were filled with new wine, Peter stood in their midst and said: "Men of Israel, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall be in the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and indeed upon my menservants and upon my maidservants in those days I will pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." We see that all this was fulfilled at the third hour, and that the coming of the Holy Spirit foretold through the prophets came upon the apostles at that time. At the sixth hour our Lord and Saviour was offered to the Father as a spotless victim, and ascending the cross for the salvation of the whole world he blotted out the sins of the human race; despoiling the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, and freed all of us, who were bound and held fast by the debt of an indissoluble bond, taking it out of the way and fixing it to the trophy of his cross. At the same hour too, to Peter in an ecstasy of mind, the calling of the Gentiles was revealed from heaven, through the letting down of the vessel of the gospel and the voice from God that came to him declaring the cleansing of all kinds of living creatures that were in it, saying to him: "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." That this vessel let down from heaven by four corners signifies nothing other than the gospel is plainly recognized. For although, distinguished by the fourfold narrative of the evangelists, it seems to have four beginnings, yet the body of the gospel is one, embracing the birth and also the divinity of the same Christ, his wonders and his passion. And it says beautifully, not "a linen sheet," but "as it were a linen sheet"; for linen is a sign of mortification. Since, then, the death of the Lord's passion was undergone not by the law of human nature but by the choice of his own will, it is called "as it were a linen sheet." For though he died according to the flesh, he did not die according to the spirit, because "neither was his soul left in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption." And again he says: "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." So in this vessel of the Gospels, sent down again — that is, written by the Holy Spirit — all the nations which were once held to be unclean, because they stood outside the observance of the law, flowing together through the belief of faith, so that they may be healthfully sacrificed from the worship of idols and may advance to saving food, are brought to Peter cleansed by the Lord's voice. And at the ninth hour, penetrating the underworld, he extinguished the inextricable darkness of Tartarus by the flash of his splendour, and breaking its gates of bronze and shattering its bars of iron, he took with him to heaven, taken captive for their salvation, the captivity of the saints which was held shut in the darkness of pitiless hell; and removing the fiery sword, he restored the ancient inhabitant to paradise by his faithful confession. At the same hour too Cornelius the centurion, continuing in prayer with his customary devotion, learns from an angel speaking with him that the remembrance of his prayers and alms had been made before the Lord; and at the ninth hour the mysteries of the calling of the Gentiles are openly disclosed to him, which had been revealed to Peter in ecstasy at the sixth hour. In another passage of the Acts of the Apostles it is also related of the same time: "Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer." By these things it is clearly proved that these hours, consecrated not without reason by holy and apostolic men to religious services, ought likewise to be observed by us too. For unless we are compelled, as if by some law, to pay these offices of devotion at least at fixed times, we spend the whole day, entangled in forgetfulness or sloth or business, without any interruption for prayer. And what should be said of the evening sacrifices, which even in the Old Testament are ordained by the law of Moses to be offered continually? For that morning burnt offerings and evening sacrifices were offered unceasingly in the temple every day, though with figurative victims, we can prove also from what David sings: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." In this passage it can be understood in a more sacred sense of that true evening sacrifice which was given by the Lord our Saviour to the apostles at supper in the evening, when he instituted the most holy mysteries of the church, or which he himself, on the following day, offered to the Father as an evening sacrifice — that is, at the end of the ages — by the lifting up of his hands for the salvation of the whole world. This stretching out of his hands on the cross is quite properly called a lifting up. For he lifted up to heaven all of us who lay in hell, according to the word of his promise: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself." As for the morning service, we are also taught by what is regularly sung in it every day: "O God, my God, to you I watch from the dawn," and, "In the mornings I will meditate on you," and, "I came before you in the early hour and cried out," and again, "My eyes came before the dawn, that I might meditate on your words." At these hours, too, the householder in the gospel hired labourers for his vineyard. For he is described as hiring first early in the morning, which time signifies our morning service; then at the third hour, then the sixth, after that the ninth, and lastly the eleventh, by which the hour of the lamp-lighting is signified.

It should be known, however, that this morning canonical office, which is now observed especially in the western regions, was first established in our own time and in our own monastery, where our Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, deigned to undergo the growth of human infancy, and by his grace strengthened our infancy too, still tender and at the breast in religion. For until that time we find that, when this morning service — which in the monasteries of Gaul is usually celebrated a little while after the night psalms and prayers are finished — was completed together with the daily vigils, the remaining hours were assigned by our forebears to the refreshment of the body. But some of the more negligent, abusing this indulgence, prolonged their time of sleep too far, since no need of any assembly invited them to leave their cells or rise from their beds before the third hour; and to the loss of their work they were sluggish with excessive sleep even during the daytime, when they ought to have been attending to various duties — especially on those days when a heavier weariness arose from keeping vigil from the evening hours until near dawn. So some brothers there, fervent in spirit, who were seriously displeased by this kind of negligence, brought a complaint to the elders, and after long discussion and careful consultation it was decreed by them that, rest being allowed to tired bodies until sunrise, when reading could be prepared or manual work taken up without harm, all should then be summoned to this religious observance and rise together from their beds; and, after celebrating three psalms and prayers according to the measure established of old for the observance of the third and sixth hours, after the example of the threefold confession, they should put an end to sleep and a beginning to work at the same time with even moderation. Although this pattern seems to have been devised for an occasion and was clearly established within recent memory for the reason we have given, it nevertheless most plainly fulfils according to the letter the number indicated by blessed David, though this also has a spiritual meaning: "Seven times a day I have praised you for the judgments of your justice." For with this service added we are shown, by holding these spiritual assemblies seven times a day, to be saying praises to the Lord seven times in it. Finally, although this same pattern, coming from the East, has spread very usefully as far as here, it does not seem to have been admitted even now in some very ancient monasteries throughout the East, which will by no means allow the most ancient rules of the fathers to be violated.

Some in this province, not knowing why this service was established or devised, go back to sleep again after the morning hymns are finished, falling into the very thing which our elders instituted this service to check. For they hurry to complete it at the very hour at which the more negligent and less careful are given an occasion to sleep again. This should by no means be done, as we explained more fully in the preceding book when describing the synaxis of the Egyptians, lest some overflow of natural humours arise and pollute our purification, gained by humble confession and prayers before dawn, or an illusion of the enemy corrupt it; or at least lest the refreshment of even a pure and simple sleep coming in between break the fervour of our spirit and, having made us lukewarm with the torpor of sleep, lead us on sluggish and slothful through the whole day. To avoid this, the Egyptians, even though they usually rise at fixed times before cockcrow, prolong their vigils after the canonical office has been celebrated until daylight, so that the morning light when it comes may find them established in this fervour of spirit, and may keep them more fervent and watchful through the whole day, receiving them prepared for the conflict and strengthened against the devil's daytime struggle by the exercise of the night vigils and spiritual meditation.

We should also know that our elders, who decided that this same morning service should be added, changed nothing of the ancient custom of the psalms; the office in the night assemblies has always been celebrated in the same order as before. For the hymns which in this region they have taken over for the morning service are still sung today in the same way at the end of the night vigils, which they usually finish after cockcrow and before dawn: that is, Psalm 148, which begins "Praise the Lord from the heavens," and the rest that follow. But Psalms 50, 62, and 89 were assigned to this new service. Indeed, throughout Italy today, when the morning hymns are finished, Psalm 50 is sung in all the churches, and I do not doubt that this was derived from no other source than this.

Anyone who has not come to prayer at the third, sixth, or ninth hour before the psalm that has been begun is finished does not dare to enter the oratory any further or to join those who are singing, but waits, standing outside the doors, for the dismissal of the assembly, until, as all come out, he obtains pardon for his negligence or lateness by penance done prostrate on the ground. He knows that he cannot atone for the fault of his sloth in any other way, and that he will not be admitted even to the service that will follow three hours later unless he hastens at once to make satisfaction for his present negligence, relying on true humility. In the night gatherings, however, a latecomer is allowed a delay up to the second psalm, provided only that he hurries to insert and join himself to the assembly before the brothers prostrate themselves in prayer at the end of that psalm. He will certainly be subject to the same rebuke and penance we have mentioned if he is even a little later than the appointed time of delay.

The vigils that are celebrated each week from the evening before the Sabbath dawns are regulated by the elders in the monasteries in winter, when the nights are longer, so as to last until the fourth cockcrow, so that after keeping watch through the whole night they may refresh their bodies for about the remaining two hours, and may not grow sluggish with the torpor of sleep through the whole day, being content with the rest of this short time in place of a whole night's refreshment. We too should keep this with all care: being content with the sleep allowed us after the end of the vigils until daylight comes, that is, until the morning psalms, we should spend the whole day afterwards in work and necessary duties, lest, compelled by the weariness and emptiness of the vigils to take back during the day the sleep we took from the night, we seem not so much to have withdrawn rest from the body as to have exchanged the time of rest and the night's refreshment. For frail flesh can by no means be so defrauded of a whole night's rest that on the following day it can keep an unshaken watchfulness without drowsiness of mind and torpor of soul; this watchfulness will be hindered rather than helped unless the body has tasted a little sleep after the end of the vigils. And therefore, if at least one hour of sleep is granted, as we have said, before daylight, we shall gain all the hours of vigil we have spent in prayer through the whole night, giving nature what is its own and having no need to take back during the day what we withdrew from the night. For whoever tries, not reasonably to withdraw a part from this flesh, but to deny it the whole, and — to put it more truly — wishes to cut off not what is superfluous but what is necessary, will certainly give it back everything. For this reason vigils that are prolonged until daylight with thoughtless and unreasonable excess must be repaid at greater interest. And so they divide them into three kinds of office, so that the labour, divided by this variety, may relieve the body's weariness with a certain pleasure. For when they have sung three antiphons standing, they then sit on the ground or on very low seats and respond to three psalms, one singing — each psalm being given to a different brother in turn — and in the same restful posture they add three readings. So it comes about that, lessening their bodily labour, they keep their vigils with greater attention of mind.

It has been established throughout the whole East since the time of the apostolic preaching, when the Christian religion and faith were founded, that these vigils should be celebrated as the Sabbath dawns, because, when our Lord and Saviour was crucified on the sixth day of the week, the disciples, still stricken by his recent passion, remained watching through the whole night, allowing their eyes no rest of sleep. For this reason the solemnity of vigils assigned to this night since that time is observed likewise throughout the whole East to this day. And so the breaking of the fast on the Sabbath after the labour of vigils, established by those same apostolic men, is not without reason followed in all the churches of the East, in accordance also with that saying of Ecclesiastes, which, though it has another, mystical sense as well, is not foreign to this one either, by which we are commanded to give the same share of solemnity to both days, that is, to the seventh and to the eighth, saying: "Give a portion to these seven, and also to these eight." For this breaking of the fast should not be thought to be a sharing in the Jewish festival, especially by those who are shown to be strangers to all Jewish superstition, but belongs to the refreshment we have mentioned of the tired body, which, fasting continually for five days in every week of the year, easily grows weary and fails unless it is refreshed by at least two days in between.

Some in certain western cities, and especially in the City, not knowing the reason for this moderation, think that the fast should by no means be broken on the Sabbath, because they assert that the apostle Peter fasted on that day when he was about to contend with Simon. From this it appears rather that he did this, not by canonical custom, but because of the need of the conflict at hand, since there too Peter seems to have enjoined on his disciples, for this same reason, not a general but a special fast. He would certainly not have done this if he had known that it was customarily kept by canonical rule; he would no doubt have been ready to enjoin the same even on the Lord's day if the occasion of that contest had fallen to him then. Yet a canonical rule of fasting should not at once have been proclaimed on that account, since it was not a general observance that had established it, but the reason of necessity had forced it to be done once.

Nor should it be unknown that on the Lord's day only one office is celebrated before the midday meal. In it, out of reverence for the collect itself and the Lord's communion, they give somewhat more solemn and generous attention to psalms, prayers, and readings, and they count the third and the sixth hours as completed together in it. So it comes about that nothing is taken away from the services of prayer, since readings are added, and yet some difference or relaxation seems to be allowed the brothers, out of reverence for the Lord's resurrection, in comparison with the rest of the time. This seems to relax the observance of the whole week, and by the very difference that is introduced it makes the same day be looked forward to again more solemnly as a festival, and makes the fasts of the coming week less felt in expectation of it. For any fatigue is always borne more patiently, and labour is spent without weariness, if some alternation or some change of work comes in between.

Finally, on those days too — that is, on the Sabbath and the Lord's day, or on feast days — when both a midday meal and a supper are usually given to the brothers, no psalm is said in the evening, neither when they go to supper nor when they rise from it, as is usually done at the solemn midday meals or at the canonical meal that ends a fast, which the customary psalms usually precede and follow. Instead, after a simple prayer they go to supper, and when they rise from it they again conclude it with a prayer only, since this meal is extraordinary among monks and not all are obliged to come to it, but only brothers who have arrived as guests, or those whom bodily weakness or their own will invites.

From the canonical measure of prayers and psalms that ought to be kept in the daily gatherings in the monasteries, the order of our account now leads us on to the training of one who renounces this world. First we shall try to cover, as briefly as we can, the conditions on which those who desire to turn to God are received into the coenobia, combining some things from the rules of the Egyptians and some from those of the Tabennesiots. Their coenobium in the Thebaid is as much stricter in the rigour of its way of life as it is more populous than all others; for in it more than five thousand brothers are governed by one abbot, and this great number of monks is subject to its elder for their whole lives with an obedience such as among us one man cannot show to another, or exercise over another, even for a short time.

I think we ought first of all to touch on how their long perseverance, humility, and submission lasts so long, and by what training it is formed, so that they persevere in the coenobium until bowed old age — for it is so great that we cannot remember anyone who entered our monasteries keeping it even for a whole year — so that, when we have seen the beginnings of their renunciation, we may understand that it followed naturally that the foundations of such beginnings should rise to such lofty heights of perfection.

Anyone, then, who seeks to be received into the discipline of the coenobium is not admitted at all until he has lain outside the doors for ten days or more and has shown proof of his perseverance and desire, and also of his humility and patience. He throws himself at the knees of all the brothers who pass by and is deliberately rejected and despised by all, as though he wished to enter the monastery not for the sake of religion but from necessity; he is also subjected to many insults and reproaches, and so gives proof of his constancy and shows by his endurance of abuse what he will be like in temptations. When he has thus been received, the ardour of his mind having been tested, the greatest care is taken to find out whether the contagion of even a single coin of his former possessions clings to him. For they know that he cannot last long under the discipline of the monastery, nor will he ever attain the virtue of humility or obedience, nor be content with the poverty and strictness of the coenobium, if even a little money lies hidden in his conscience; but as soon as some disturbance has arisen on any occasion, encouraged by his confidence in that money, he will at once flee from the monastery like a stone from a whirling sling.

And therefore they do not agree to accept money from him even for the uses of the coenobium: first, lest, puffed up by confidence in this offering, he should not deign to make himself equal to the poorer brothers; then, lest through this pride he should by no means descend to the humility of Christ, and when he has been unable to endure under the discipline of the coenobium and has left it, should, grown lukewarm afterwards, try with a sacrilegious spirit to take back and demand, not without injury to the monastery, what he had brought in at the beginning of his renunciation when he was kindled by spiritual fervour. They have often been taught by many experiences that this must be observed in every way. For in other, less careful monasteries, some who were received without precaution later tried, with great blasphemy, to demand the return of what they had brought in and what had been spent in the work of God.

Therefore each one, when he has been received, is so stripped of all his former possessions that he is not allowed to keep even the clothing he wears; he is brought out into the midst of the council of the brothers, stripped of his own clothes, and clothed by the abbot's hands in the monastery's garments. By this he is to know not only that he has been despoiled of all his old things, but also that, having laid aside all worldly pride, he has come down to the poverty and want of Christ, and is now to be supported, not by wealth acquired by worldly skill or kept back from his former unbelief, but will receive the wages of his service from the holy and devout bounty of the monastery. Knowing that he is to be clothed and fed from it from now on, he is to learn, according to the saying of the gospel, both to have nothing and nevertheless not to be anxious about tomorrow; and he is not to be ashamed to be made equal to the poor, that is, to the body of the brotherhood, with whom Christ was not ashamed to be numbered and whose brother he was not ashamed to be called; rather, he is to glory that he has been made a sharer with his household.

The clothes he has laid aside are handed over to the steward and kept until they clearly recognize, through various temptations and trials, his progress and the virtue of his way of life and endurance. If, as time goes on, they see that he can stay there and persevere in the same fervour with which he began, they give those clothes to the needy. But if they find that he has fallen into some vice of grumbling or into the fault of even a small disobedience, they strip him of the monastery's garments with which he had been clothed, dress him again in his old ones that had been set aside, and drive him out. For it is not lawful for anyone to depart with what he has received, nor do they allow anyone to wear them any longer whom they have once seen grow lukewarm towards the rule of his training. Hence no one at all is given the opportunity of leaving openly: either he flees by night like a runaway slave, seizing the thickest darkness, or, judged unworthy of this order and profession, he is expelled with shame and disgrace before all the brothers, after laying aside the monastery's garment.

When, then, someone has been received and approved by the perseverance we have described, and, having laid aside his own clothes, has been clothed in the monastic habit, he is not at once allowed to mix with the congregation of the brothers, but is assigned to an elder who lives apart, not far from the entrance of the monastery, and who has been given charge of strangers and visitors, and spends all diligence on receiving them with kindness. When he has served there for a whole year and has shown his service to the strangers without any complaint, he has been imbued by this first training in humility and patience and has become known through long exercise in it. When he is to be admitted to the congregation of the brothers, he is handed over to another elder who is in charge of ten juniors, whom, entrusted to him by the abbot, he both trains and governs, according to what we read was ordained by Moses in Exodus.

His chief concern and teaching, by which the junior who has been brought in may be able to climb in due course to the highest summits of perfection, will be this: to teach him first to conquer his own will. Exercising him in this zealously and diligently, he will take pains always to command him deliberately those things which he perceives to be contrary to his inclination. For, taught by many experiences, they say that a monk, and especially the younger ones, cannot bridle even the pleasure of his desire unless he has first learned through obedience to put to death his own will. And so they declare that one who has not first learned to overcome his own will can by no means succeed in extinguishing anger or dejection or the spirit of sexual immorality, nor can he keep true humility of heart, or lasting unity with the brothers, or firm and enduring harmony; nor can he even remain long in the coenobium.

By these institutions, as by certain letters and syllables, they hasten to imbue and shape those whom they are initiating towards perfection, discerning clearly through them whether they are grounded in a feigned and imaginary or a true humility. To help them reach this easily, they are next trained not to hide in their hearts, through harmful embarrassment, any itching thoughts at all, but to reveal them to their elder as soon as they arise, and not to trust anything to their own discernment in judging them, but to believe that to be bad or good which the elder's examination has discussed and pronounced. So it comes about that the cunning enemy cannot get the better of the young man in anything, as if he were inexperienced and ignorant, nor deceive by any fraud one whom he sees protected, not by his own discernment, but by his elder's; nor can he persuade him to hide from the elder any of the suggestions or fiery darts he has thrown into his heart. For the most subtle devil cannot otherwise mock or cast down a junior, except when he has enticed him, whether through arrogance or through shame, to cover up his thoughts. For they declare it a general and clear sign of a diabolical thought if we are ashamed to reveal it to an elder.

After this, the rule of obedience is kept with such care that the juniors not only do not dare to leave their cell without the knowledge or permission of their superior, but do not even presume to satisfy the common and natural necessity on their own authority. And they hasten to carry out, without any discussion, everything he commands, as if it had been given from heaven by God, so that sometimes they receive even impossible commands with such faith and devotion that they strive with all their strength and without any hesitation of heart to carry them out and complete them, and out of reverence for the elder they do not even measure the impossibility of the command. I pass over for now speaking in detail of their obedience, for we plan to give it by actual examples a little later in its place, if the Lord grants us leave through your prayers. Let us now go through their other institutions, passing over those which in this region cannot be handed on to the monasteries or kept by them, as we promised in our short preface we would do: for instance, that they do not use woollen garments but only linen ones, and not even two of these; the superior of each group of ten supplies changes to them when he sees that the ones they wear have become dirty.

Passing over likewise that arduous and sublime kind of abstinence, in which it is thought the height of luxury if a herb seasoned with salt, which they call labsanion, soaked in water, is set before the brothers as their meal, and many other things like these, which in this province neither the mildness of the climate nor the nature of our weakness permits, I shall pursue only those things which no weakness of the flesh and no situation of place can hinder, unless weakness of soul and lukewarmness of mind take them away.

So, sitting in their cells and giving their attention equally to work and meditation, when they hear the sound of the one knocking at the door and striking the cells of the various brothers — calling them, that is, to prayer or to some work — each one rushes out of his cell as if in competition, so that one who is working as a scribe does not dare to finish the letter he is found to have begun, but at the very moment when the sound of the knocking reaches his ears he leaps up as quickly as possible, not allowing even as much delay as would complete the shape of the stroke he has begun, but leaving the lines of the letter unfinished; he does not so much pursue the savings or profit of his work as hasten with all zeal and eagerness to carry out the virtue of obedience. They prefer this, not only to manual work, reading, and the silence and quiet of the cell, but to all the virtues, so that they judge everything should be put after it, and they are content to suffer any loss, provided they are not seen to have violated this good in anything.