The Five Causes of Monastic Action
There is an island near Alexandria, situated on the northern part of the lake called Maria, where the most approved monk of the camp of the gnostics lives alone; he determined that all things performed by the monks are performed for five reasons: through God, through nature, through habit, through necessity, and through the works of the hands.
The same one said again that virtue is one by nature, but is given form in the powers of the soul; for the solar light is formless, he says, but it is naturally shaped together with the windows through which it enters.
Another of the monks said: For this reason I cut away pleasures, he said, so that I might cut off the pretexts of thumos; for I know him always fighting for the sake of pleasures, disturbing my mind and driving away my knowledge. And one of the elders said that love does not know how to keep deposits of food or money. The same one says: I do not know, having been deceived twice in the same way by demons. All...
Greek
98 Ἔστι δέ τις παρὰ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν νῆσος κατ' αὐτὸ τὸ βόρειον μέρος τῆς λίμνης κειμένη τῆς καλουμένης Μαρίας, προσοικεῖ δὲ αὐτῇ μοναχὸς τῆς παρεμβολῆς τῶν γνωστικῶν ὁ δοκιμώτατος· ὅστις ἀπεφήνατο πάντα τὰ πραττόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν μοναχῶν πράττεσθαι δι' αἰτίας πέντε· διὰ Θεόν, διὰ φύσιν, διὰ ἔθος, διὰ ἀνάγκην, διὰ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν. Ὁ δ' αὐτὸς ἔλεγε πάλιν μίαν μὲν εἶναι τῇ φύσει τὴν ἀρετήν, εἰδοποιεῖσθαι δὲ αὐτὴν ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσι τῆς ψυχῆς· καὶ γὰρ τὸ φῶς τὸ ἡλιακὸν 11 ἀσχημάτιστον μέν ἐστι, φησί, ταῖς δὲ δι' ὧν εἰσβάλλει θυρίσι συσχηματίζεσθαι πέφυκεν. 99 Ἄλλος δὲ πάλιν τῶν μοναχῶν· διὰ τοῦτο περιαιρῶ τὰς ἡδονάς, εἶπεν, ἵνα τὰς τοῦ θυμοῦ περικόψω προφάσεις· οἶδα γὰρ αὐτὸν ἀεὶ μαχόμενον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἡδονῶν καὶ ἐκταράσσοντά μου τὸν νοῦν καὶ τὴν γνῶσιν ἀποδιώκοντα. Ἔλεγε δέ τις τῶν γερόντων ὅτι ἡ ἀγάπη παραθήκας βρωμάτων ἢ χρημάτων τηρεῖν οὐκ ἐπίσταται. Ὁ δ' αὐτός· οὐκ οἶδα, φησίν, εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ δὶς ὑπὸ δαιμόνων ἀπατηθείς. 100 Πάντας