The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII

Works of St John Cassian (Institutes, Conferences, On the Incarnation) · Saint John Cassian

Preface.
Chapter I. Description of the town of Thennesus.
Chapter II. Of Bishop Archebius.
Chapter III. Description of the desert where Chæremon, Nesteros, and Joseph lived.
Chapter IV. Of Abbot Chæremon and his excuse about the teaching which we asked for.
Chapter V. Of our answer to his excuse.
Chapter VI. Abbot Chæremon's statement that faults can be overcome in three ways.
Chapter VII. By what steps we can ascend to the heights of love and what permanence there is in it.
Chapter VIII. How greatly those excel who depart from sin through the feeling of love.
Chapter IX. That love not only makes sons out of servants, but also bestows the image and likeness of God.
Chapter X. How it is the perfection of love to pray for one's enemies and by what signs we may recognize a mind that is not yet purified.
Chapter XI. A question why he has called the feeling of fear and hope imperfect.
Chapter XII. The answer on the different kinds of perfection.
Chapter XIII. Of the fear which is the outcome of the greatest love.
Chapter XIV. A question about complete chastity.
Chapter XV. The postponement of the explanation which is asked for.
Conference XII. The Second Conference of Abbot Chæremon. On Chastity.
Chapter I. Introduction.
Chapter II. A question why the merit of good deeds may not be ascribed to the exertions of the man who does them.
Chapter III. The answer that without God's help not only perfect chastity but all good of every kind cannot be performed.
Chapter IV. An objection, asking how the Gentiles can be said to have chastity without the grace of God.
Chapter V. The answer on the imaginary chastity of the philosophers.
Chapter VI. That without the grace of God we cannot make any diligent efforts.
Chapter VII. Of the main purpose of God and His daily Providence.
Chapter VIII. Of the grace of God and the freedom of the will.
Chapter IX. Of the power of our good will, and the grace of God.
Chapter X. On the weakness of free will.
Chapter XI. Whether the grace of God precedes or follows our good will.
Chapter XII. That a good will should not always be attributed to grace, nor always to man himself.
Chapter XIII. How human efforts cannot be set against the grace of God.
Chapter XIV. How God makes trial of the strength of man's will by means of his temptations.
Chapter XV. Of the manifold grace of men's calls.
Chapter XVI. Of the grace of God; to the effect that it transcends the narrow limits of human faith.
Chapter XVII. Of the inscrutable providence of God.
Chapter XVIII. The decision of the fathers that free will is not equal to save a man.
Chapter I. The words of Abbot Nesteros on the knowledge of the religious.
Chapter II. On grasping the knowledge of spiritual things.
Chapter III. How practical perfection depends on a double system.
Chapter IV. How practical life is distributed among many different professions and interests.
Chapter V. On perseverance in the line that has been chosen.
Chapter VI. How the weak are easily moved.
Chapter VII. An instance of chastity which teaches us that all men should not be emulous of all things.
Chapter VIII. Of spiritual knowledge.
Chapter IX. How from practical knowledge we must proceed to spiritual.
Chapter X. How to embrace the system of true knowledge.
Chapter XI. Of the manifold meaning of the Holy Scriptures.
Chapter XII. A question how we can attain to forgetfulness of the cares of this world.
Chapter XIII. Of the method by which we can remove the dross from our memory.
Chapter XIV. How an unclean soul can neither give nor receive spiritual knowledge.
Chapter XV. An objection owing to the fact that many impure persons have knowledge while saints have not.
Chapter XVI. The answer to the effect that bad men cannot possess true knowledge.
Chapter XVII. To whom the method of perfection should be laid open.
Chapter XVIII. Of the reasons for which spiritual learning is unfruitful.
Chapter XIX. How often even those who are not worthy can receive the grace of the saving word.
Chapter I. Discourse of Abbot Nesteros on the threefold system of gifts.
Chapter II. Wherein one ought to admire the saints.
Chapter III. Of a dead man raised to life by Abbot Macarius.
Chapter IV. Of the miracle which Abbot Abraham wrought on the breasts of a woman.
Chapter V. Of the cure of a lame man which the same saint wrought.
Chapter VI. How the merits of each man should not be judged by his miracles.
Chapter VII. How the excellence of gifts consists not in miracles but in humility.
Chapter VIII. How it is more wonderful to have cast out one's faults from one's self than devils from another.
Chapter IX. How uprightness of life is of more importance than the working of miracles.
Chapter X. A revelation on the trial of perfect chastity.
Chapter I. What Abbot Joseph asked us in the first instance.
Chapter II. Discourse of the same elder on the untrustworthy sort of friendship.
Chapter III. How friendship is indissoluble.
Chapter IV. A question whether anything that is really useful should be performed even against a brother's wish.
Chapter V. The answer, how a lasting friendship can only exist among those who are perfect.
Chapter VI. By what means union can be preserved unbroken.
Chapter VII. How nothing should be put before love, or after anger.
Chapter VIII. On what grounds a dispute can arise among spiritual persons.
Chapter IX. How to get rid even of spiritual grounds of discord.
Chapter X. On the best tests of truth.
Chapter XI. How it is impossible for one who trusts to his own judgment to escape being deceived by the devil's illusions.
Chapter XII. Why inferiors should not be despised in Conference.
Chapter XIII. How love does not only belong to God but is God.
Chapter XIV. On the different grades of love.
Chapter XV. Of those who only increase their own or their brother's grievances by hiding them.
Chapter XVI. How it is that, if our brother has any grudge against us, the gifts of our prayers are rejected by the Lord.
Chapter XVII. Of those who hold that patience should be shown to worldly people rather than to the brethren.
Chapter XVIII. Of those who pretend to patience but excite their brethren to anger by their silence.
Chapter XIX. Of those who fast out of rage.
Chapter XX. Of the feigned patience of some who offer the other cheek to be smitten.
Chapter XXI. A question how if we obey the commands of Christ we can fail of evangelical perfection.
Chapter XXII. The answer that Christ looks not only at the action but also at the will.
Chapter XXIII. How he is the strong and vigorous man, who yields to the will of another.
Chapter XXIV. How the weak are harmful and cannot bear wrongs.
Chapter XXV. A question how he can be strong who does not always support the weak.
Chapter XXVI. The answer that the weak does not always allow himself to be borne.
Chapter XXVII. How anger should be repressed.
Chapter XXVIII. How friendships entered upon by conspiracy cannot be lasting ones.
Chapter I. Of the vigils which we endured.
Chapter II. Of the anxiety of Abbot Germanus at the recollection of our promise.
Chapter III. My ideas on this subject.
Chapter IV. Abbot Joseph's question and our answer on the origin of our anxiety.
Chapter V. The explanation of Abbot Germanus why we wanted to stay in Egypt, and were drawn back to Syria.
Chapter VI. Abbot Joseph's question whether we got more good in Egypt than in Syria.
Chapter VII. The answer on the difference of customs in the two countries.
Chapter VIII. How those who are perfect ought not to make any promises absolutely, and whether decisions can be reversed without sin.
Chapter IX. How it is often better to break one's engagements than to fulfil them.
Chapter X. Our question about our fear of the oath which we gave in the monastery in Syria.
Chapter XI. The answer that we must take into account the purpose of the doer rather than the execution of the business.
Chapter XII. How a fortunate issue will be of no avail to evil doers, while bad deeds will not injure good men.
Chapter XIII. Our answer as to the reason which demanded an oath from us.
Chapter XIV. The discourse of the Elder showing how the plan of action may be changed without fault provided that one keeps to the carrying out of a good intention.
Chapter XV. A question whether it can be without sin that our knowledge affords to weak brethren an opportunity for lying.
Chapter XVI. The answer that Scripture truth is not to be altered on account of an offence given to the weak.
Chapter XVII. How the saints have profitably employed a lie like hellebore.
Chapter XVIII. An objection that only those men employed lies with impunity, who lived under the law.
Chapter XIX. The answer, that leave to lie, which was not even granted under the old Covenant, has rightly been taken by many.
Chapter XX. How even Apostles thought that a lie was often useful and the truth injurious.
Chapter XXI. Whether secret abstinence ought to be made known, without telling a lie about it, to those who ask, and whether what has once been declined may be taken in hand.
Chapter XXII. An objection, that abstinence ought to be concealed, but that things that have been declined should not be received.
Chapter XXIII. The answer that obstinacy in this decision is unreasonable.
Chapter XXIV. How Abbot Piamun chose to hide his abstinence.
Chapter XXV. The evidence of Scripture on changes of determination.
Chapter XXVI. How saintly men cannot be hard and obstinate.
Chapter XXVII. A question whether the saying: “I have sworn and am purposed” is opposed to the view given above.
Chapter XXVIII. The answer telling in what cases the determination is to be kept fixedly, and in what cases it may be broken if need be.
Chapter XXIX. How we ought to do those things which are to be kept secret.
Chapter XXX. That no determination should be made on those things which concern the needs of the common life.