Notes
NOTES
1 The standard English biography remains the second edition of Owen Chadwick’s John Cassian (Cambridge: CUP, 1968); more comprehensive, but less widely available, is Leon Cristiani’s Jean Cassien (Abbaye S. Wandrille: Editions de Fontenelle, 1946). Also eminently worth reading is Columba Stewart’s Cassian the Monk (New York: OUP, 1998).
2 On this aspect of Cassian’s writings, there is an important contribution by Columba Stewart, ‘From logos to verbum. John Cassian’s Use of Greek in the Development of Latin Monastic Vocabulary’, in The Joy of Learning and the Love of God. Studies in Honor of Jean Leclercq, edited by E. Rozanne Elder (Kalamazoo MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995): pp. 5-31.
3 See Ferrandus, Life of Fulgentius 12.24 (PL 65: 128-29).
4 Prosper of Aquitaine, for instance, attacked Cassian savagely (and incompetently): see A. Casiday, ‘Rehabilitating John Cassian: An evaluation of Prosper of Aquitaine’s critique of “Semipelagianism”’, in the Scottish Journal of Theology (forthcoming).
5 For instance, J.-C. Guy, ‘Jean Cassien, historien du monachisme égyptien?’ Studia Patristica 8 (1966): pp. 366-72; K. S. Frank, ‘John Cassian on John Cassian,’ Studia Patristica 30 (1996): pp. 418-33.
6 See Cassian, Institutes preface pp. 8-9.
7 See H.G. Evelyn-White, The Monasteries of the Wâdi ‘n Natrûn, part II: The History of the Monasteries of Nitria and of Scetis (New York: The Metropolitan Museum, 1932): pp. 125-44 and, for a more recent and theoretically informed approach, E. A. Clark, The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).
8 I have only found Cassian to use the expression ipsa verba (the ‘very words’) three times in the whole of his corpus: Conferences 8.23 and 9.13, Incarnation 4.2. But the old chestnut about whether it is reasonable to suppose that Cassian is relating the precise words of the abbas at a remove of roughly thirty years is ill considered. Cassian’s aim seems rather to have been more like that of Thucidydes, in his History A. 1.22.1: ‘... it has been difficult to recall the precise words of the speeches that I listened to myself—and it is likewise with my informants. So each person shall say concerning the situation at hand what is, in my view, most necessary, while I keep close to the complete sense of what was actually said.’
9 A good example of this kind of sensitive evaluation of Cassian’s writings is available in Adalbert de Vogüé, ‘Pour comprendre Cassien. Un survoi des Conferences,’ Collectanea Cisterciensia 39 (1977): pp. 250-72.
10 See C. Stewart, Cassian the Monk, pp. 136-37 and especially J.-C. Guy, ‘2. Isaac (les Isaac moines d’Égypte). 3. Isaac, prêtre des Cellules,’ in the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 72, 2005-06.
11 On these monks, see now Mark Sheridan, ‘The Spiritual and Intellectual World of Early Egyptian Monasticism’, Coptica 1 (2002): pp. 1-51.
12 See Brian Daley, ‘What did “Origenism” mean in the Sixth Century?’ in Origeniana Sexta, edited by Gilles Dorival and Alain le Boulleuc (Leuven: Peeters, 1995): pp. 627-38.
13 See René Draguet, ‘L’Histoire lausiaque, une œuvre écrite dans l’esprit d’Évagre’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique (1946-1947), pp. 41-42, 321-64, pp. 5-49.
14 See S. Marsili, Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontico: Dottrina sulla Carità e Contemplazione (Rome: Editrice Anselmiana, 1936).
15 E.g., Cristian ǎdiliţǎ has hypothesized (rather fancifully, in my view) that Abba Serenus of Conferences 7 and 8 is in fact Evagrius: ‘Plusieurs indices nous font supposer que sous les traits psychologiques et intellectuels de Serenus (celui qui est devenu un apathes) se cacherait Evagre lui-même, le grand absent de l’œuvre de Cassien. Mais la démonstration de cette identification reste à faire’. See his ‘Jean Cassien et le mythe des anges déchus’, in Jean Cassien entre l’orient et l’occident, edited by idem and Attila Jakab (Paris: Beauchesne, 2003): pp. 221-37 at 221 n 2.
16 See, e.g., G. Bunge, ‘Evagre le Pontique et les deux Macaire’, Irénikon 56 (1983): pp. 215-27, 323-60; J. Driscoll, ‘Exegetical procedures in the desert monk Poemen’, in Mysterium Christi: Symbolgegenwart und theologische Bedeutung, edited by M. Lobrer and E. Salmann (Rome: Sant’ Anselmo, 1995): pp. 155-78; idem, ‘Evagrius and Paphnutius on the causes for abandonment by God’, Studia Monastica 39 (1997): pp. 259-86; idem, ‘The Fathers of Poemen and the Evagrian Connection’, Studia Monastica 42 (2000): pp. 27-51.
17 For further considerations on Cassian’s teaching of deification, see my paper, ‘Deification in Origen, Evagrius and Cassian’, in Origeniana Octava, edited by L. Perrone (Leuven: Peeters, 2003): pp. 995-1001.
18 See Institutes 2.9.1.
19 Cassian calls Castor and Leon ‘papae’ (whence, ‘popes’), but this means no more than ‘bishops’.
20 Cf. Evagrius, On prayer 2: ‘A soul purified by the fullness of the commandments prepares a steadfast organisation for the mind, making it receptive of the desired state.’ (All translations from Evagrius are taken from my volume in the Early Church Fathers series, Evagrius Ponticus [London: Routledge, forthcoming]).
21 Cf. Evagrius, On prayer 70: ‘Stand guard, protecting your mind from representations at the time of prayer, and make your stand on your own state of rest so that he who sympathises with the ignorant may also regularly visit you and then you may get the most glorious gift of prayer.’
22 Already, Cassian intimates that the goals of virtue are contemplatio Dei and spiritales intuitus, which corresponds precisely to Evagrius’ teaching. See Salvatore Marsili, Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontico, Studia Anselmiana 5 (Rome, 1936): pp. 38-41, 61-65, 121-144.
23 Cf. Evagrius, Gnostic Chapters II, 6 (PO 28.62-3): ‘The ascetic soul which, by God’s grace, has conquered and departed from the body will be in those regions of knowledge where the wings of its impassibility will take it.’
24 The description of demons as ‘Ethiopians’ is, regrettably, quite common in the literature. See, in the Apophthegmata: Alphabetic Collection Heraclides; in the Anonymous Collection (published by J.-C. Guy, Recherche sur la tradition grecque des Apophthegmata Patrum (Brussels 1962)): N173(41), N426, N596; Daniel of Scetis 10, N628; ps.-Rufinus, Vitae patrum 3.43 (PL 73.739-810); Paulos Evergetinos, Synagoge 3.16.7.3 (Athens, 1997), III, 211; Palladius, Lausiac History 23.5; Historia Monachorum in Aegypto 8.4; Cassian, Conference 2.10-13.
25 Cf. Origen, On Prayer, 12.2 (ed. Koetschau (1899): 1.324.25-325.3): ‘He prays “without ceasing” who unites prayer to the necessary deeds and fitting actions to prayer, since virtuous deeds or fulfilling the commandments are included as a part of prayer; for we can only accept the command to “pray without ceasing” as meaning something possible if we mean that the saint’s whole life taken together is one great prayer.’
26 The word translated here ‘perceptions’ is sensuum, which derives from sentire—a Latin verb that refers to feeling, sensing and perceiving. The noun has a similar range of meaning, with the result that some translators (e.g., Gibson) take it as referring to an emotional experience and others (e.g., Chadwick, Degli Innocenti, Ramsey) emphasise the intellectual aspect of the word.
27 The word here translated ‘struck with sorrow’ is compunctus, which is an important term in Christian ascetical literature; though it is now dated in some of its particulars; I. Hausherr’s Penthos: the doctrine of compunction in the Christian East, trans. A Hufstader (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications 1982) is still a fundamental study of the term. See also Barbara Müller, Der Weg des Weinens: Die Tradition des “Penthos” in den Apophthegmata Patrum (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2000).
28 Cassian is relating a specifically Evagrian gloss of prayer (proseuchê) as vow (euchê); cf. Evagrius, Capita cognoscitiva 16 (ed. Muyldermans: ‘Evagriana,’ Le Muséon 44 (1931): pp. 37-68, here at 53): ‘Prayer is the voluntary offering of goods’. (For ‘prayer’, I follow Barberini in reading euchê for psuchê.) For further discussion, see S. Marsili, Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontico (Rome: Sant’ Anselmo, 1936): pp. 98-100 n. 2.
29 Cf. Evagrius, Capita cognoscitiua 19 (ed. Muyldermans: 53): ‘Intercession is the advocacy before God of the superior for the sake of others’ salvation.’
30 This explanation of what it means to be ‘equal to the angels’ [cf. Luke 20.36] can be compared to Gregory of Nyssa, On the making of man 17 (PG 44: 188-9) and Evagrius, On prayer 113: ‘Through true prayer, the monk becomes “equal to the angels” [Luke 20.36], yearning to “see the face of the Father who is in heaven”’ [Matt. 18.10].
31 It should be noted that this is being said in precisely such a ‘spiritual conversation’ (conlatio spiritalis).
32 Cf. Evagrius, Causes for monastic observances 9: ‘And groan, weep and put on the form of mourning for the judgment of sinners, fearing lest you yourself also be numbered among them. But rejoice, exult and be glad at the good things that have been set aside for the righteous. Exert yourself to enjoy the latter, but avoid the former.’
33 Cf. Evagrius, On prayer 32, 89: ‘Often in praying I requested that what seemed good to me would be done and persisted in my request, irrationally contending with God’s will and not yielding to him so that he would providentially arrange what he knew to be more expedient. And in the event when I finally got it, I was deeply disappointed that I had requested instead that my own desire be done, for the thing did not turn out to be for me such as I had reckoned’; ‘Do not want for your affairs to transpire as seems best to you, but as pleases God, and you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer.’
34 Cassian often uses the expression here translated as ‘humanity’ (Latin: homo assumptus, ‘assumed man’) in describing the Lord’s humanity (e.g. Institutes 12.17; Conferences 7.22, 9.34.10, 16.6.4, 22.12.1; On the incarnation 1.2.5, 1.5.4, 2.3.10, 2.6.1, 5.6.3—though most of these passages are actually citations from another author)—and he has been faulted for doing so by modern scholars; see for instance A. Grillmeier, Christ in the Christian Tradition, Vol. I: From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon (451), trans. John Bowden. (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975): pp. 468; Stewart, Cassian the Monk, 23. This expression was part of a precise Christology that was advanced by Theodore of Mopsuestia (see his On the incarnation 7; ed. Swete: 296-98) and was condemned in 553 (see canons 12 and 13 of Constantinople II; ed. Straub: pp. 218-19). But the term was widely used by Cassian’s contemporaries (for instance, Apponius, On the Song of Songs 3.3, 5.32, 9.47, 12.12, 12.46, 12.50 [CCSL 19: 61, 130, 233, 273, 288, 290], Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 1.11,13, 16, 2.25 et passim [PL 10: 33-34, 36, 67] and Augustine, Letters 137.2.6, 137.4.14, 140.3.9, 148.2.10, 148.4.15, 169.2.8, 187.13.39-40, 238.3.18 [CSEL 44: 103-05, 116-17, 161, 340-41, 344-45, 617; 57: 116-18, 546-47]. In fact, Latin authors commonly used the concrete noun ‘man/homo’ instead of the abstract noun ‘humanity/humanitas’: see Donald Fairbairn, Grace and Christology in the Fifth-Century Church (Oxford: OUP, 2003): pp. 190-92. We might therefore think it a bit churlish for Cassian to come in for criticism in respect of a widely attested usage.
35 This is a difficult passage and some (notably, Chadwick, John Cassian: p. 50) have even suggested that it is an interpolation. There is, however, no support for this suggestion in the manuscript tradition. It should be noted, however, that for this translation I follow the variant reading ‘qui intento animo non supplicat’ (‘who does not make a petition with an attentive mind’) which makes rather more sense than the reading given by Petschenig et al: ‘qui intento animo supplicat’ (‘who makes a petition with an attentive mind’).
36 Frequent and brief prayer is a staple of Egyptian monastic spirituality; see, e.g., Evagrius, On prayer 98: ‘In the time of such temptations, make use of brief, intense prayer’; and Refutations (also known by the Greek title, Antirrhetikos), passim; cf. G. Bunge ‘“Priez sans cesse”. Aux origins de la prière hésychaste’, Studia Monastica 30 (1998): pp. 7-16. Such prayers are often called ‘monologistic’ in the tradition, because they are precisely focused. The most famous monologistic prayer is the Jesus Prayer, which is perhaps best known from the anonymous classic, The Way of the Pilgrim but which has its roots in Egyptian practice (see Antoine Guillaumont, ‘Jesus Prayer among the Monks of Egypt’, Eastern Churches Review 6 (1974): pp. 66-71).
37 It should not escape our attention that Cassian concludes his account of the conference by relating that those present participated in the evening service—an act of corporate prayer.
38 The first bishop to disseminate these festal letters was Dionysius (c. 247-64), according to Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History 7.10-11, 20-22. The custom was well established by Cassian’s time. The festal letters written by Athanasius have attracted a considerable amount of scholarly attention: see now Alberto Camplani, Atanasio di Alessandria. Lettere festali. Anonimo. Indice delle lettere festali (Milan: Paoline, 2003), with an excellent discussion of the place of festal letters in the Egyptian church.
39 As mentioned in the introduction, Theophilus was subsequently to turn his attention to the opponents of the ‘Anthropomorphites’ and drive them from Egypt. He has often been accused of opportunism for this, not least by the ancient church historians Sozomen (see his Historia Ecclesiastica 8.11-12 [PG 67. 1544-49]) and Socrates (Historia Ecclesiastica 6.7 [PG 67. 684-88]). For a modern attempt to vindicate Theophilus, see Norman Russell, ‘Theophilus and Cyril of Alexandria on the divine image. A consistent episcopal policy toward the Origenism of the desert?’, in Origeniana Octava, edited by Lorenzo Perrone (Leuven: Leuven University Press and Peeters, 2003): pp. 939-46.
40 For the role of the ‘priest of the congregation’ during this time, see the valuable discussion in Evelyn White’s reconstruction of the organization of Kellia: Hugh G. Evelyn White, The Monasteries of the Wâdi ‘n Natrûn, part II: The History of the Monasteries of Nitria and of Scetis (New York: The Metropolitan Museum, 1932), pp. 175-78.
41 For a comparison of Cassian to Evagrius in regard to praktikê (here translated as ‘asceticism’), see Marsili, Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontico, pp. 110-15.
42 Cf. the austere admonition of Evagrius, On prayer 67: ‘Never give a shape to the divine as such when you pray, nor allow your mind to be imprinted by any form, but go immaterial to the Immaterial and you will understand.’
43 Origen put forward the idea that the Lord appears in different ways to different people in his Against Celsus 2.64, 4.16 and 6.77—and it may be more than coincidental that, in those passages, Origen connects the teaching to the Transfiguration (much as Cassian does here). See further John McGuckin, ‘The Changing Forms of Jesus’, in Origeniana Quarta, ed. Lothar Lies (Innsbruck and Vienna: Tyrolia-Verlag, 1987): pp. 215-22.
44 The scriptural image of the Transfiguration is central to Isaac’s (and therefore Cassian’s) description of pure prayer—and so his reference to the ‘radiance’ of Christ’s appearance can be seen to be in continuity with the light mysticism that is more widely attested in Evagrius’ works, pace O. Chadwick, John Cassian (Cambridge: CUP, 1950): p. 148. Since the contemplation of Christ’s radiant appearance in this account corresponds to the vision of light in Evagrius’ works, it is not surprising that other elements of Isaac’s description of the ascent of Mt Olivet (e.g. leaving off ‘the contemplation of earthly and material things’, ‘ascending from base and earthy works and thoughts’, ‘hidden from the tumult of passions’ and the like) are parallel to Evagrius’ description of the ascetic life.
45 Here, the word used, theoria, is simply a transliteration from the conventional Greek synonym for contemplatio; to distinguish one from the other, I translate contemplatio as ‘contemplation’ and leave theoria untranslated.
46 The simile of the haven was already quite ancient by Cassian’s time; see Campbell Bonner, ‘Desired Haven’, Harvard Theological Review 34 (1941): pp. 49-67.
47 The word translated here as ‘asceticism’ is studium; on this sense of studium in Latin ascetic literature, see L. Th. A. Lorié, Spiritual Terminology in the Latin Translations of the Vita Antonii (Nijmegen, 1955): pp. 69-74, 78-80, 98-101.
48 Akedia is another Greek ascetic term that Cassian uses without translating it into Latin. For an excellent and evocative description of it, see Evagrius’ description of ‘the noon-day demon’ at Praktikos 12 (SC 17 1.520-26). For an excellent discussion of this theme, see G. Bunge, Akedia. Die geistliche Lehre des Evagrios Pontikos vom Überdruss, 4th edition (Würzburg: Der Christliche Osten, 1995).
49 On the ‘canonical rule’ for using the Psalter in communal prayer, see especially Cassian, Institutes 2.
50 Cassian provides a frank discussion of nocturnal emissions of semen, and how monks coped (or didn’t cope) with them, in Conference 12.
51 Columba Stewart has pointed to the ease with which Cassian endorses ‘transport of mind’ (which he understands as a kind of ecstasy) as an element that sets Cassian apart from Evagrius, to whom he otherwise bears close comparison (as we have seen); see Cassian the Monk, 31, pp. 84-86, 105, 108, 113-30. There is no denying that Cassian regularly talks about ‘sensation’ and uses emotive language with far greater regularity than does Evagrius, but it must not escape our notice that, in the passage, Isaac combines stability of thoughts with keenness of heart and transport of mind. So, whatever else ‘transport of mind’ might be, it does not jeopardise the stability of one’s thoughts and therefore we will want to be very cautious in using the word ‘ecstasy’ to describe Isaac’s teaching.
52 The word translated ‘emotional responses’ here and in the following section is affectus, which indicates a deep emotional response. Isaac’s teaching is that one should learn off by heart the psalter and thus stock oneself with a ready supply of appropriate ‘reactions’. This instruction is parallel to the use of scripture promoted by Evagrius Ponticus, especially in his Refutations (also known by the Greek title, Antirrhetikos), on which, see G. Bunge, ‘Evagrios Pontikos: Der Prolog des “Antirrhetikos”,’ Studia Monastica 39 (1997): pp. 77-105.
53 Cf. Conference 9.25, above.
54 Cf. Mark the Monk, Concerning those who imagine they are justified by their works 122: ‘Recollection of God is the pain that a person suffers in his heart for the sake of godliness but everyone who forgets God becomes self-indulgent and unfeeling.’ This translation is taken from St Mark the Monk: On the Spiritual Life, vol. 1, translated by T. Vivian and A. Casiday (Crestwood: SVS Press, forthcoming).
55 This line is a paraphrase of Evagrius’ Praktikos 15 (SC 171: 536): ‘Reading and vigils and prayer stabilise the wandering mind...’