Letter 1: The holy bishops and the guides of the monastic discipline, from the conflicts and struggles which they underwent,...
Isidore of Pelusium→Nilus|c. 390 AD|Isidore of Pelusium|Human translated
education booksmonasticism
Concerning arrogance, conceit, and humility. Who would not charge you with absurdity, that having despised wealth, and lineage, and this shadowy honor, and having become for many a path to humility, you have now been caught being haughty, as though you had forgotten the divine law which commands the one who wishes to be exalted to humble himself? If, then, you have not been entirely submerged by the waves of vainglory, return soberly to your promise. For this has not escaped your notice, that moderation, growing together with the virtues, makes those who live in this way imitators of God; but arrogance not only knows how to pull down present achievements, but even casts down from the very heavens the proud-necked, which is what Lucifer, who rose in the morning, suffered. What it signifies that Elisha changed the barren waters of Jericho with salt. Elisha healed with salt the waters of Jericho that had been rendered barren, being moved toward the healing in an evangelical manner, as one who saw what lay ahead. For he bore a type: the waters representing all of humanity, established in barrenness of virtue and fruitlessness of piety; and the salt representing the quality and power that moistens all things, pointing to the teaching of the Lord, just as he himself said to his own apostles, "You are the salt of the earth." And Elisha was a type of the Creator and Master himself. For those who kept the image pure for their Maker also received grace from him to work wonders together with him.
The holy bishops and the guides of the monastic discipline, from the conflicts and struggles which they underwent,[1] established fitting terms, for activities for our instruction and knowledge. They called the withdrawal from the material world “renunciation,” and ready obedience “subjection.” And they, on the one hand, only had nature as a teacher[2]; and we, on the other hand, having their recorded[3] conduct, consider the work to be small. “Renunciation,” therefore, must be the forgetting of the former way of thinking and the refusal of fellowship[4]; and “subjection” must be the cessation and dissolution from the people on earth, just as it stands written.
Concerning arrogance, conceit, and humility. Who would not charge you with absurdity, that having despised wealth, and lineage, and this shadowy honor, and having become for many a path to humility, you have now been caught being haughty, as though you had forgotten the divine law which commands the one who wishes to be exalted to humble himself? If, then, you have not been entirely submerged by the waves of vainglory, return soberly to your promise. For this has not escaped your notice, that moderation, growing together with the virtues, makes those who live in this way imitators of God; but arrogance not only knows how to pull down present achievements, but even casts down from the very heavens the proud-necked, which is what Lucifer, who rose in the morning, suffered. What it signifies that Elisha changed the barren waters of Jericho with salt. Elisha healed with salt the waters of Jericho that had been rendered barren, being moved toward the healing in an evangelical manner, as one who saw what lay ahead. For he bore a type: the waters representing all of humanity, established in barrenness of virtue and fruitlessness of piety; and the salt representing the quality and power that moistens all things, pointing to the teaching of the Lord, just as he himself said to his own apostles, "You are the salt of the earth." And Elisha was a type of the Creator and Master himself. For those who kept the image pure for their Maker also received grace from him to work wonders together with him.
Human translation - Roger Pearse (additional translations)