Letter 684

To Berimus the Monk. Many, taking confidence in themselves on account of certain virtues, and not expecting that those very demons who besiege and sack the soul would enter in to them, have grown greatly proud. Yet all the same, changed for the worse against their expectations, they have suffered the experience of the enemy, who entered through the senses of the body and laid waste the wretched soul. For this reason too it has been written: "The kings of the earth did not believe that the enemy would enter in, pressing through the gates of Jerusalem" [Lamentations 4:12].

Πολλοὶ θαρροῦντες ἑαυτοὺς διά τινας ἀρετὰς, καὶ μὴ προσδοκήσαντες εἰσελεύσεσθαι πρὸς αὐτοὺς τοὺς πολιορκοῦντας τὴν ψυχήν, καὶ ἐκπορθοῦντας δαίμονας μέγα πεφρονήκασι. Ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως, παρ᾽ ἐλπίδας ἀλλοιωθέντες ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον, πεῖραν τῶν πολεμίων εἰλήφασιν, εἰσελθόντων διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων τοῦ σώματος, καὶ τὴν ἀθλίαν ψυχὴν ἐρημωσάντων. Διόπερ κἀγέγραπται, ὅτι «Οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς, ὅτι εἰσελεύσεται ὁ ἐχθρός, ἐθλίβων διὰ τῶν πυλῶν Ἱερουσαλήμ.»