Chapter VIII.
Of a fourth sort of monks.
There
is however another and a
fourth kind, which we have lately seen springing up among those who
flatter themselves with the appearance and form of anchorites, and who
in their early days seem in a brief fervour to seek the perfection of
the Cœnobium, but presently cool off, and, as they dislike to put
an end to their former habits and faults, and are not satisfied to bear
the yoke of humility and patience any longer, and scorn to be in
subjection to the rule of the Elders, look out for separate cells and
want to remain by themselves alone, that as they are provoked by nobody
they may be regarded by men as patient, gentle, and humble: and, this
arrangement, or rather this lukewarmness never suffers those, of whom
it has once got hold, to approach to perfection. For in this way their
faults are not merely not rooted up, but actually grow worse, while
they are excited by no one, like some deadly and internal poison which
the more it is concealed, so much the more deeply does it creep in and
cause an incurable disease to the sick person. For out of respect for
each man’s own cell no one ventures to reprove the faults of a
solitary, which he would rather have ignored than cured. Moreover
virtues are created not by hiding faults but by driving them
out.