Epistola 'De Discrictione Monachorum Et Ruina Monasteriorum'

The letter of Saint Eutropius, abbot and bishop, to Pope Peter concerning the strictness of monks and the ruin of monasteries, sent to Rome. (From the Codex of Queen Marianne Brokle.) Almighty God, out of His mercy, having pitied human errors, provided us with a most certain teaching through the most holy man Moses, and declared that it is sufficiently fitting and praiseworthy for those in authority to be angry with those who commit offenses against Him, and on the contrary, to be gentle and kind toward those who live well and holily. This He made manifest in that, because of the sin of the offending people, as Scripture itself speaks, the angry Moses broke the tablets which he had received from the Lord at the foot of the mountain; moreover, he avenged the crime of the offending people with the sword of the Levites. But that he was gentle and kind is not in doubt, because, by frequently beseeching the Lord on their behalf, he averted the wrath of God coming upon them; and from those by whom he could at times have been stoned, he did not cease to beseech the Lord on their behalf. Let this suffice for the present from many testimonies of the Old Testament. But the Lord Himself says in the Gospel: "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Matthew 5:22). And note how this is to be understood. He is held guilty by this saying who has wished to apply the goad of anger not to the vice which is evil in man, but to human nature itself, which God certainly created good.

Therefore, the Apostle says to certain ones living wickedly and rebuked by him more harshly: "You have compelled me to be evil" (2 Cor. 12). And concerning the cutting off and separation of those who are unwilling to repent, he speaks thus: "Would that those who disturb you were cut off" (Gal. 5:12)! Concerning these, the Lord also says in the Gospel, to speak in other words: "If a brother, admonished more often, is unwilling to be corrected, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican" (Matt. 18:17). But if we ought not to be silent and, as it is also unspeakable to say, not to rebuke the delinquent according to the measure of his fault, why, I ask, does the Lord command us through Isaiah, saying: "Cry out, do not cease; raise your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their crimes, and to the sons of Israel their sins" (Isa. 58:1); and that of Ezekiel: "If you have not announced to the impious that he should be turned from his iniquity, that impious one will indeed die in his iniquity, which he has wrought; but I will demand his blood from your hand" (Ezek. 35:8). To this sentence we add that saying of the distinguished doctor: "And what does it profit not to be punished by one's own sin, when one is to be punished by another's sin?" Moreover, the Apostle Paul speaks openly to Timothy, saying: "Argue, beseech, rebuke, with all patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2); but those who, admonished once and again, have been willing to recognize their crime through repentance and to correct their life for the better.

Moreover, concerning those who have resolved to persist in evil and have not chosen to return to the path of a righteous life by coming to their senses, he commands elsewhere: "Rebuke them harshly" (Titus 1:13). And again: "Do not even take food with such persons" (1 Cor. 5:11). For this reason he also speaks, saying: "I have become your enemy by telling you the truth" (Gal. 4:16). Whence even the secular poet says: "Flattery makes friends, truth begets hatred"; for truth is bitter, and those who love it are filled with bitterness. Therefore Jeremiah also says: "I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness" (Jer. 15:17). And what is this bitterness, if not the evil and unrighteous conduct of certain men? What now shall we do, most holy man? Shall we be silent? And shall we consent to dissolution, so that we may acquire the name of being gentle and mild? And what will this profit us before God, when for our silence the soul of the perishing one is said to be sought from our hand? But if we, by both exhorting and rebuking more often, wish to recall the flock entrusted to us by God from the snares of the devil and from perverse works, we shall be called harsh and rough by the mouths of many. Yet, although this is often said by many who do not understand the duty of our office, discretion must still be maintained, and the institution of the holy rule, so that what the fathers established may be kept and observed whole and inviolate by their successors and sons.

For if in any matter one is to deviate from the institution and path of the holy Fathers, and a person is not to be rebuked according to the quality and nature of his fault, who, I ask, among the wicked, who are now at least deterred by punishments, would hear this and not do whatever he wished, and rush headlong into vices? And therefore the order and ineffable arrangement of divine power commands that there be a prince in the world, a pastor and bishop be set over the Church, and a father in monasteries, so that they may oppose wicked work and criminal and impious acts, and avenge a crime perpetrated against the customs of the human race with the sword of strictness and severity. Saint Augustine, the most distinguished doctor of the Church, as you know very well, says in the eighth book of *The City of God*, pay attention. Finally, in our discipline, it is not so much asked whether a pious mind grows angry, nor whether it is sad, but from what cause it is sad; nor whether it fears, but what it fears. For to be angry at a wrongdoer so that he may be corrected, to be sad for the afflicted so that he may be freed, to fear for one in danger lest he perish—I do not know whether anyone of sound judgment would dare to reproach these things.

The resources of this age, which (He) has deigned to bestow through His mercy for the necessity and sustenance of this transitory life, and not for luxury and excess—even if, which is not the case, they could be sufficient—are not, therefore, to be lived in abundance and splendor, nor is one to serve the belly and gluttony, even if we abound in all these things. For Scripture forbids this, saying: "If riches abound, do not set your heart upon them" (Psalm 61:11); and the Apostle: "And do not make provision for the flesh in its desires" (Romans 13:14). And "I chastise my body and reduce it to servitude, lest, while I preach to others, I myself be found reprobate" (1 Corinthians 9:27). For this reason, he often asserts that he glories in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and fasts. And that saying of the Lord in the Gospel: "Let not your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness" (Luke 21:34). But if it is not so, then we read the lives of the holy Fathers daily to no purpose. We say that we hold to their profession, yet we shrink from living according to their institution. Why also does our Lord, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, command, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles" (Matthew 10:5), unless it be that, just as their religion is separate, so also their life be separate? For there will be no distance between the profane and the holy, between the secular and the monk, between the frugal and the sparing, if we wish to serve and satisfy our own will and concupiscence indiscriminately.

Or what will it profit us before God to have the name alone of our religious profession, and not also a holy and good life and praiseworthy conduct? First before God, then before men, if we wish to show it, according to what is read of Samuel: "And he was pleasing both to God and to men" (1 Sam. 2:29). And the Lord in the Gospel: "Let them see your good works," He says, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). And this is because whatever good is said to be in us is attributed not to the merit of our own life, but to the gift of God's grace freely bestowed upon us. Whence the apostle Paul says: "Providing for good things not only before the Lord, but also before all men" (2 Cor. 8:21). He elsewhere, shunning the praise of men as vain glory, said: "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10). The most blessed Peter also, the head and prince of all the apostles, says: "Have a good conscience and conduct among the Gentiles, so that in that which they detract from you as from evildoers, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may be confounded" (2 Pet. 2:12). But we desire, and this we wish with all our affection, my Father, what you also wish, and I am ready, so to speak, with my hands to receive those coming into the house of God, and to carry and cherish them in my bosom, provided only that they are such as both please God and understand and keep their profession.

For we desire not how many but what sort we have, and with whom we live chastely and holily, so that we may please the Lord in the profession of the perfect. For the Lord takes delight not in a lax and lukewarm name and number, but in the holiness of the perfect. Hence also "many are called, few are chosen" (Matt. 22:14). And "small is the flock to which it pleased your Father to give the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). And it is better to enter into life with few and holy men than to be separated from the fellowship of the saints with many who live tepidly and luxuriously. And few walk along the narrow and strait way, and they reign in the homeland of eternal life; many enter upon the broad and spacious way, and they are hurled into the depths of Gehenna. For we, just as the founders and fathers of this monastery held, and left handed down to us, with the Lord's help have held and do hold, and we do nothing more or less, mindful of that Scripture which says: "Do not transgress the ancient boundaries which your fathers set" (Prov. 22:28). And: "He who scorns small things gradually falls" (Ecclus. 19), so that through these things we may have, in the judgment of God, not adversaries but patrons in all things for ourselves and for our fathers, who instituted this rule according to the norm of the ancients, with God inspiring them.

For even if by chance someone should say that we act too strictly, and because of this says that some depart from us, and speaking with your leave, and saving your most dear to us and God-worthy privilege of honor, we say that whoever else says this seems to us neither to know the monastic rule thoroughly nor to understand it, and through this it appears that he does not detract from us, but rather publishes his own inexperience. Let each such person say to himself what he wishes, but we hold to what we have received and learned, and all the holy brothers who are with us, in whose hearts divine love and the affection of charity reign, guard this with the whole intention of their mind, and they trust to persevere in this with the Lord protecting and helping them. For no censure, especially in such a cause of God, breaks us, nor does praise, even if falsely given, exalt us. For we say what was said by the Apostle: Through glory and ignobility, through infamy and good fame, etc. (2 Cor. 6:8). It remains only that, with the Lord helping us through your holy prayers, we do this for the salvation of God’s servants and for the sake of God, so that it may come to us not for condemnation, but for reward at the judgment of the just judge, with him aiding. For if we wished to fear the detractions of men, we would least do what is pleasing to God. Because, as is well known to your holiness, if someone rebukes and reproaches a sinner, he is immediately hated, immediately detracted from, immediately suffers snares.

But the Lord consoles us, saying: Blessed are you when men curse you for my sake; rejoice and exult, for your reward is abundant in heaven (Matt. 5:11). We must strive only for this: that we endure insult for no other reason than for Christ, and that the cause of detraction be Christ, and that we, having suffered curses for the truth, know that we are not cursed, who proclaim it with all confidence for the salvation of those entrusted to us by God, nor do we offer an easy and pleasing entrance to the monastery to those who even tear apart the entire assembly of the Church with their raving mouth. For as Holy Scripture says: Not only the one who detracts, but also the one who willingly listens to the detractor, is considered to be of one guilt and fault. We write this to you, most blessed Father, so that you may know that we do nothing without reason, but act according to the custom of this monastery, which has been established both holily and regularly. Certainly, if someone cannot bear the custom of our rule, let him impute it not to our strictness, but to his own tepid will. For if someone with bleary eyes cannot look at and see the brightness of the sun, it is not to be said that it is the fault of the sun, but rather the defect of bleariness and blindness.

Because what God has established in a holy, upright, and perfect manner through holy and perfect men in this cell of his, and has wished to be maintained up to the present, can in no way now be transgressed, altered, or abandoned on account of a few tepid men, or wanderers and false monks, who daily go around the houses of various people and, like Epicurus, joyfully say: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (Isa. 22:13). For, as the holy Apostle says: "The firm foundation of God stands" (2 Tim. 2:19), even if there is someone who, through the fault of his own ill will, stumbles and falls upon it, yet it does not in any way totter or give way, because almighty God protects and strengthens it with his right hand. Amen.