and inflamed with curious fare There are many who tread vpon couetousnes and it is layd aside by them as easily as their purse A reproachfull tongue is mended by imposing silence vpon it To reforme the habite and order of our cloathing doth but cost an houres work All other sinnes ar◅ without the man and that which is without is soone cast away Only lust to which we are enable ◅ by God for the procreation of children if i◅ passe beyond the due boundes proues vicious by a kind of course of nature it striues to breake out into copulation It is therefore a point of great vertue and requires a carefull diligence to ouercome that to which you are borne and not to liue in flesh after a ◅shly manner to fight daily with your selfe and to ha◅e the hundred eyes of Argus which the Poets ◅aigne vpon that enemy who is shut vp within our selues This is that which the Apostle deliuers to vs in other words All sinne which a man commits is without the body but he who commits fornication sinnes against his owne body The Phisitians who writ of the nature of mans body and especially Galen sayth in those bookes which are intituled Of preseruing bodily health that the bodies of youthes and young men and of men and woemen of perfect age boyle vp through their inuate heate and that such food is hurtfull to them at those years as doth increase their heat that on the other side it conduces to their health to take such other meate and drinke as cooles the blood And so also old wine and warmer food is good for old men who are subiect to crudities and fleame Whereupon our Sauiour also sayth Looke to your selues that your har◅s be not oppressed through gluttony drunkennes and with the cares of this life And the Apostle speakes of wine wherein there is luxury Neither is it any maru◅ile that the Potter framed this iudgment of the poore little pot which himselfe had made when the Comedian whose end was no more then to describe the conditiō of mankind sayd that Venus grew could without Ceres and Bacchus First therefore if yet the strength of your stomacke will endure it let water be your drinke till you shall haue passed ouer the heat of your youth Or if your weakenes will not admit of this hearken to Timothy Vse a little wine for your stomacke and for your frequent infirmities In the next place you must in your food auoyd all kind of thinges which are hot And here I speake not only of flesh vpon which the vessell of election pronounces this sentence It is good for a man not to drinke wine nor to eate flesh but also euen in Pulse to auoyd all those things which are windy and heauy and know you that nothing is so good for Christians as the feeding vpon kitchin herbes Whereupon he saith also in another place He that is infirme let him eat herbes and so the heat of our bodies is to be tempered with this cooler kind of cates Daniel the three children were fed with Pulse They were but young were not yet come to the fiery paine wherin that Babylonian King fryed those old iudges By vs that good fayre state of body which euen besides the priuiledge of Gods grace appeared in them by theyr feeding vpon such meates is not esteemed but the strength of the soule is sought by vs which is so much the stronger by how much the flesh is weaker From hence it is that many who desire to lead a chast life fall groueling downe in the midest of their iourney whilest they attend only to abstayne from flesh and load the stomacke with pulse which being taken moderately and sparingly is not hurtfull But if I shall say what I thinke there is nothing which doth so much inflame a body and prouoke the partes of generation as meate when it is not wel digested but makes a kind of conuulsion in the body through windynes I had rather O daughter speake a little too plainly then that the matter we speake of should be in danger You must thinke all that to be poyson which makes a seminary of pleasure A sparing diet a stomacke which is euer in appetite I preferre before a fast of three daies and it is much better to take some little thing euery day then to feed full at some few times That rayne is the most profitable which descends into the earth by little and little A sudden and excessiue shower which fals impetuously turnes the field vp side downe When you eat consider that instantly after you must pray and read Rate your self to a certaine number of verses of holy Scripture and performe this taske to our Lord and allow not your body to take rest till you shall haue filled the basket of your breast with that kind of worke Next after holy scriptures read the writings of learned men of thē I meane whose faith is known There is no cause why you shold seeke gold in durt but you must sell pearles to buy that one Stand according to the aduise of Ieremy neer many wayes that you may meet with that one which leades to our country Transferre your loue of iewels and gemmes and silken cloathes to the knowledge of holy scripture Enter into that land of promise flowing with milke and hony Eate flower and oyle and apparayle your selfe with the variously coloured garments of Ioseph Let your eares be boared through with Ierusalem that is to say by the word of God that the pretious grayne of new corne may bow downe from thence You haue holy Exuperius a man of fit age approued faith who will often instruct you with his good aduice Make friendes for your selfe of the vniust Mammon who may receiue you into those eternal Tabernacles bestow your riches vpon them who eat not pheasants but browne bread who driue hunger away and who do not call lust home Haue vnderstanding of the poore and needy giue to euery one that askes of you but especially to the houshould of faith Cloath the naked the hungry visit the sicke As often as you stretch forth your hand thinke of Christ. Take heed that when your Lord God is begging of you you increase not the riches of other folkes Fly from the conuersation of young men and let not any roof in your house be able to see these dapper curious and loose fellowes there Let the musitian be sent away like a ma◅efactour and thrust you rudely out of your house all Fidlers and minstrells and such quiers of the Diuell as you would anoyd those Syren songes which bring destruction Goe not ◅orth in publicke be not carryed vp and downe according to the liberty which widowes takes with that army of Eunuches going before you It is a most wicked custome that a frail sexe and a weake age should abuse power and should thinke that all is lawfull which they list Though all thinges were
ly hidden from the inhabitants also of that place but the men woemen there hauing their faces all growen wanne and worne with hunger came crowding to desire some showres of rayne of the seruant of Christ that is of the successour of the Blessed Anthony As soone as he beheld them he was stricken with strange griefe and casting his eyes vp to heauen and raysing both his handes on high he instantly obtayned what they desired But behould that dry and sandy country as soone as it was wel watered with raine budded forth vpon the sudden such a multitude of Serpents and other venemous creatures that innumerable persons had instantly perished if they had not made recourse to Hilarion But all those Sheepheards Country people applying certaine Oyle which he had blessed did assuredly recouer their health Yet perceauing himselfe to be also obserued there with strange kindes of honour he went on to Alexandria resolued to proceed from thence to that desart of the more remote Oasa and because from the first tyme that he had beene a Moncke he had neuer remayned in any Citty he turned a while to certaine Brothers wel knowne to him in Brutium not farre from Alexandria who when they had receaued the old man with an admirable kind of ioy they suddenly heard the night being then at hand that his disciples were making ready his Asse and that he was prouiding to be gone And therfore casting themselues at his feet they desired him to change his mind and then lying also prostrate before the threshold of the doore they professed that they would rather dy then loose such a guest He answered them after this manner I make hast to be gone for the preuenting of your trouble and you shall be sure to know heereafter that I went not hence so suddenly without cause The next day therefore they of Gaza went forth with their officers for they knew that Hilarion was come thither the day before and they entred into the Monastery and when they found him not there they sayd thus to one another Are not those thinges true which we haue sayd of this man A Magitian he is and knowes future thinges But the Citty of Gaza when once Hilarion was gone out of Palestine and Iulianus had succeeded in the Empire hauing already destroyed the Monastery made a petition to the Emperour for the death of Hilarion and Hesychius and they obtayned it and warrants were sent out through the whole world that they should be sought Hilarion therfore being gone from Brutium entred into Oasa by an impenetrable kind of desart and there hauing spent little more or lesse then a yeare he could only thinke of sayling ouer to some Ilandes that whome the earth had published at least the Sea might conceale for the fame of him had also arriued as farre as that place where thē he was and now he could no longer hide himselfe in the Easterne partes of the world where he was knowne to so many both by reputation and person About that very tyme Adrianus a disciple of his came suddenly to him out of Palestine bringing newes that Iulian was slaine and that a Christian Emperour began to raigne and that it became him to returne ro the Relickes of his Monastery He heard but detested that motiō hauing procured a Camell he came through a vast solitude to Paretonium a Sea-towne of Libya but the vnfortunate Adrian being willing to returne to Palestine and seeking to enioy his former glory vnder the title of his Master did him many wronges and at last hauing trussed vp those things togeather which had beene sent to Hilarion by certaine Brothers he went away without his priuity Vpon this occasiō because we are not likely to haue any other I will only tell you for the terrour of such as despise their Maisters and teachers that shortly aftér this man did rot of the Kings euill The old man therefore hauing one of Gaza with him did embarke himselfe vpon a ship which was bound for Sicily and when by the sale of a booke contayning the Ghospell which himselfe being young had written with his owne hādes he meant to haue payd for his passage the Masters sonne was suddenly possesséd by a Diuell about the middest of the Adriatike sea and began to cry out and say Hilarion thou seruant of God why dost thou not permit vs to be in safety euen at Sea Giue me day till I may come to land least being cast out heere I be precipitated into the Abysse He made answere to him thus Stay if my God will let thee stay but if he will cast thee out why dost thou lay it to my charge who am a sinnefull man and a beggar This he sayd least the Marriners and Marchants who were in the ship should publish him when they came to land But soone after this the boy was freed both his father and the rest who were present giuing their wordes that they would not name him at all Being entred within Pachinum which is a Promōtory of Sicily he offered the Maister his booke of the Ghospels for the passage of himselfe and the man of Gaza which Maister euen from the first had no mind to receaue it especially when he saw that they had nothing but that booke and their cloaths and so at last he swore he would not take it But the old man being inflammed through the experimentall comfort he had in being poore did reioyce so much the more both because in very deed he had nothing of this world and for that he was also esteemed a beggar by the Inhabitants of that place And yet doubting least some Marchants who vsed to come out of the Easterne parts might detect him he fled towardes the In-land that is some twenty miles from the Sea and there in a kind of wild little Country making daily vp some fagot of wood he would lay it vpon the backe of his disciple and that being sold in the next Towne did help them to some very little bread which might serue by way of reliefe both to themselues and such others as by chaunce vsed to passe that way But indeed according to that which is written The Citty placed vpon a hill cannot be concealed For when a certaine Buckler-maker was tormented in S. Peters Church at Rome the vncleane spirit cryed out in him after this manner Some few dayes since Hilarion the seruant of Christ came into Sicily and no mā knowes him and he thinkes he lyes secret there but I will go and reueale him Soone after this the same man shipping himselfe at Porto with his seruants arriued at Pachinum the Diuel conducting him till he might prostrate himselfe before the little poore cottage of the old man he was immediatly cured This first miracle of his in Sicily drew an innumerable multitude of sicke men as also of deuout persons to him so farre forth that a certaine man of much quality being sicke of a Dropsy was cured by
heard to be crying out from the Citties and Townes there abouts as if they were approaching towardes the shoare He therefore being come to Papho◅ that Citty of Cyprus which hath beene so ennobled by the inuention of Poets and which being fallen by frequent earthquaks doth now by the only appearance of the ruines shew what formerly it had beene liued obscurely within two miles of that place was glad that he might spend those few dayes in peace But twenty dayes more were not fully passed when throughout that whole Iland all those persons who were possessed with vncleane spirits began to cry out that Hilarion the seruant of Christ was come they must hasten towards him This did Salamina this did Curium and Lapetha and this did all those other Cittyes proclaime most of them affirming that indeed they knew Hilarion and that he was the true seruant of God but that they knew not where he kept So that within thirty or few dayes more there came to him two hundred possessed persons as well men as woemen As soone as he saw them he did so grieue that they would not giue him leaue to be quiet and being cruell after a sort in the way of reuenge vpon himselfe he did so whip vp those spirits by the extreame instance of his prayers that some of the possessed were presently deliuered others after two or three dayes and all within the compasse of a weeke Staying therfore there two yeares and euer being in thought how to fly away he sent Hesychius into Palestine to salute his Brethren and to visit the ashes or ruines of his Monastery with order that he should returne the next spring after Now though vpon the former returne of Hesychius thither Hilarion resolued to haue gone againe into Aegypt and namely to certaine places which are called Bucolia because no Christiās were there but it was a fierce and barbarous nation Hesychius did yet persuade him that he should rather procure to find out some more retired place in that very Iland where he was And when after long search in all those partes Hesychius had found one he conducted him twelue miles of from the Sea into the middle of certaine secret craggy mountaines to which a man was hardly able to ascend euen by creeping vpon his handes and knees He entred then and contemplated that so retyred and terrible place enuironed on all sides with trees and hauing store of water descending from the brow of the hill and a little kind of very delightfull garden and great store of fruit-trees the fruit wherof he yet did neuer taste There were also the ruines of a most ancient Temple from whence as himself related and his disciples testify to this present day there was heard the noyse of such an innumerable multitude of Diuels as that a man would euen conceaue it to haue beene some Army He was much delighted with this as finding that he had Antagonists at hand and there he dwelt fifteen yeares and in that last part of his life he was much comforted by the often visits of Hesychius For otherwise by reason of the great difficulty and craggines of the place and the multitude of Ghosts which were vulgarly sayd to be walking there either very few or none had both the power and the courage to go vp thither But yet vpon a certaine day going out of his little gardē he saw a man who had the Palsy in all his limes lying before his dore and he asked Hesychius who that was and how he had beene brought thither The sicke man answered and sayd that formerly he had beene the Steward of a little vilage to the confines whereof that very garden belonged wherein they were But the old man weeping stretching forth his hand to the sicke person who lay before him sayd I require thee in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that thou ryse and walke An admirable hast was made for the wordes were yet but tumbling out of the speakers mouth and euen very then his limmes being growne strong were able to support him Now as soone as this was heard the difficulty of the place and of the way which was euen almost impenetrable was yet ouercome by the necessityes of men the people round about hauing no care more at heart then to watch that by no meanes he might get away For already there was a rumour spread of him that he could not stay long in a place which yet he was not subiect to as being obnoxious to any leuity or childish humour but to the end that he might fly from honour importunity by that meanes for the thing to which he euer aspired was a remote and poore priuate life But in the eightyth yeare of his age whilest Hesychius was absent he wrote him a short letter with his owne hand in the nature of a kind of VVill bequeathing al his riches to him that is to say his booke of the Ghospels his coate of sacke-cloath his hood and his little cloake for his seruant dyed some few dayes before Now whilest himselfe was sicke there came many deuout persons to him from Paphos and especially because they had heard he sayd that he was to depart to our Lord and to be freed from the chaines of this body With them there came a certaine Constantia a holy woman whose sonne in law and daughter he had freed from death by anoynting thē with oyle He adiured them all that they would not reserue his body any one minut of an houre after he should be dead but that instantly they should couer him with earth in the same garden all apparelled as he was in a haire-cloath a hood and a country cassocke By that tyme he had but a very little heat which kept his breast luke-warme nor did any thing seeme to remaine in him of a liuing man besides his vnderstanding only his eyes being still open he spake thus Go forth what dost thou feare Go forth O my soule what dost thou doubt It is now vpon the point of threescore and ten yeares since thou seruest Christ and dost thou now feare death As he was speaking these wordes he rendred vp his spirit and instantly being al couered with earth the newes of his buriall was more speedily carryed to the Citty then of his death But as soone as the holy man Hesychius had vnderstood thus much in Palestine he went towardes Cyprus and pretending that he had a mind to take vp his dwelling in the same garden that so he might free the Inhabitants of the Country from the opinion that they had need to keep some strict guard vpon the body he grew able to steale it away after the end of ten moneths with extreame hazard of his life He brought it to Maioma whole troupes of Monckes and euen whole Townes attending it and he buryed it in his ancient Monastery his haire-cloath his hood and his little cloake being vntouched and his whole body was also as entire as if he
had beene thē aliue and it yeilded and odour so very fragrant as if he had beene pretiously imbalmed And now me thinkes that in the last period of this booke I may not conceale the deuotion of that most holy woman Constantia who vpon receauing the newes that the dear body of Hilarion was now carryed away into Palestine did instantly giue vp the ghost approuing euen by death her true loue to that seruant of God For she had beene wont to spend whole nights in watching at his sepulcher and for her better help in prayer to speake to him as with one who were still present with her To this very day you may discerne a wonderfull contention betweene them of Palestine and them of Cyprus the former challenging his body and the later his scirit and yet in both these places great wonders are daily wrought though more in the garden of Cyprus perhaps because his heart was more set vpon that place FINIS THE LIFE OF S. MALCHVS WRITTEN BY S. HIEROME THE ARGVMENT THE life captiuity of MALCHVS who was borne in Maronia a towne of Syria is described by S. Hierome and in the person of MALCHVS he exposes first to the Readers eye a solitary and famous Moncke and then the same as he was vexed and afflicted with temptations THE LIFE THEY who are to fight some sea battell dispose themselues first to stirre their ships in the hauen or at least in a still Sea they stretch their Oares they prepare their iron handes hookes and they frame the souldiers who are ranged out vpon the deckes to stand fast with vse though at the first their paces were vnequall and their steps sliding that so what they haue learned in this picture of fight may make them feare the lesse when they come to a true Sea battell After this very sort I who haue long held my peace for he hath made me silent to whome my speach is a torment desire first to exercise my selfe in some little work and as it were to rub off a kind of rust from my tongue that I may come afterwardes to write a more ample history For I haue resolued if our Lord giue me life if my calumniators will leaue persecuting me at least now that I am fled shut vp from them to write from the coming of our Sauiour till this age that is to say from the Apostles till the dregges of these our present dayes in what manner and by the meanes of what men the Church of Christ was instituted and how it came to growth how it increased by persecution and was crowned by Martyrdomes how afterward when the Empire was put into the hand of Christian Princes it grew greater in wealth and power but lesse in vertue But of these things at some other tyme now let vs declare what we haue in hand There is a little Towne lying towardes the East of Maronia a Citty of Syria vpon the point of thirty miles from Antioch This towne after hauing beene in the handes of many either absolute Lords or Possessours of it otherwise came at last when I being a young man remained in Syria into the hands of Pope Euagrius a neere friend of myne whome therefore I haue named now to shew by what meanes I might come to know that whereof I am about to write In that Towne therefore there was a certaine old man called Malchus whome we in Latin may call King A Syrian he was by natiō and by language and indeed Autochthon There was also in his society a very aged decrepit woman who seemed to be come to the very dores of death They were both so diligently deuout and so did they weare the very threshold of the Church away that you might haue taken them for the Zachary and Elizaheth of the Ghospell saue only that they had no Iohn betweene them Concerning these two I made diligent inquiry of the dwellers there about by what tye of coniunction they were knit of mariage of consanguinity or of spirit Al men made but this one answeare that they were Saints and persons very pleasing to God and they tould I know not what strange thinges of them and so being drawne on with this delight my selfe did set vpon the man and curiously asking him the truth of things he made me this account of himselfe I am sayth he my sonne a husband-man of that tract which belonges to Maronia and I was the only child of my Parents who being willing to make me marry as being the only spring of their stocke and the heire of their family I answeared that I rather chose to be a Moncke By how great threates of my Father and by how faire allurements of my Mother I was persecuted to the end that I might be content to loose my chastity this only consideration may serue to shew that I forsooke my home fled from my Parents And because I could not goe Eastward for that Persia was so neer at hand where there was a guard of Roman souldiers I turned my course toward the West carrying I know not what little thing with me by way of prouision which might only secure me frō the extreamity of want Why should I vse many wordes At length I came to the desart of Chal◅is which lyes somewhat Southward of Imma and Essa and meeting there with certaine Monckes I deliuered my selfe ouer to their discipline getting my liuing by the labour of my handes and restraining the lustfullnes of flesh and blood by fasting After many yeares a desire came into my mind of returning into my country whilest my Mother was yet aliue for by that tyme I had heard of my Fathers death to become a comfort of her widdowhood and that then after this hauing sould the little possession which I was to enioy I might bestow a part vpon the poore a part vpon erecting a Monastery and a part for why should I blush to confesse my little confidence in the prouidēce of God vpon the supply of myne owne expence charge My Abbot began to tell me alowd that it was but a temptation of the Diuell and that the subtile snare of the old enemy did but lurke vnder a specious pretext That this was but to returne as a dogge would do to his vomite that many Monckes had beene thus deceaued that the Diuell is neuer wont to shew his face without a maske He propounded many examples to me out of Scripture and that among the rest how in the beginning of the world Adam and Eue were supplanted by a hope of diuinity And when he could not persuade with me he besought me euen vpon his knees that I would not forsake him nor destroy my selfe nor looke backe ouer the shoulder when I had the plowgh in my hand But woe be to me wretched man I ouercame this Counsellour of myne by a most wicked kinde of victory conceauing indeed that he sought not my good but his owne comfort He went following me therefore out