Extract from 'Paradoxical Questions concerning the morals & actions of Athanasius & his followers'

Some are of opinion that the {sic} Monks of this age were most holy men: but this is a great prejudice & such a prejudice as judicious men who have read & considered {illeg} their lives can scarce fall into. ffor they seeme to me to have been y^e most unchast & superstitious part of mankind as well in this first age as in all following ages. For it was a general maxim \notion/ amongst them ^a[1] that after any man became a Monk he found himself more tempted by the Devil to lust then before & those who went furthest into y^e wilderness & profest Monkery most stricktly were most tempted, \the Devil (as they imagined) tempting them \most when it was/ to divert them from the best purpose/. So that to turn a Monk was to run into such temptation as Christ has taught us to pray that God would not lead us into. The For lust by a violent prohibition \being force forcibly restrained restrained/ & by struggling w^th it is always inflamed. The way to be chast is to \not to contend & struggle with unchast thoughts but to decline them {illeg}/ keep the mind imployed about other things: for he that's always thinking of chastity will be always thinking of weomen & to struggle \every contest/ w^th unchast thoughts is to \will/ leave {sic} such deep impressions upon the mind as \shall/ make {sic} those thoughts \apt to/ return more frequently. ffasting \duly/ is one of y^e moral <75r> vertues & has its vitious extreames like all the rest. \If duly exercised 'tis temperance & its extremes are intemperance./ To pamper y^e body enflames lust & makes it lesse active & fit for use. \And on the other hand/ To macerate it \by fasting & watching/ beyond measure does y^e same thing. It does not only render y^e body feeble & unfit for use but also enflames it \& invigorates/ lustful thoughts. ffor \at length/ it invigorates y^e imagination & brings \The want of sleep & due refreshment brings men disorders the imagination & \at length/ brings/ men to a sort of distraction \& madnesse/ so as to make them think they have visions of weomen conversing with 'em & sitting upon their knees & think they really see \& touch/ them {sic} & heare them {sic} talk. \✝/ |✝See y^e backside of y^e next page| < insertion from f 76v > \See y^e leaf before./ ✝T as I gather from what the Monks have recorded from their own experience. ffor Cas {illeg}anus in Collat. 22 {illeg}. 2 Questionem proponi \propounds this Question/ Cur interdum remissius jejunantes levioribus carnis {illeg}culeis titillentur & nonnunquam districtius abstinentes afflicto exhaustoqꝫ corpore incentivis acr{illeg}ribus urgeantur ita ut experge facti reperiant se humorum naturalium {qu}estione respersos. Et subjugat quod \And subjoyns/ hujus in festationis triplicem causam Monachorum majores prodidere. And in Collat 2 cap. 17 |he| affirms {sic} quod gravius se periclitatum somni cibiqꝫ fastidio quam soporis et gastrimargiæ colluctatione persensit. Et quod perniciosius continentia immoderata quam saturitas remissa supplantat. And {sic} Evagrus Palladij Magister in lib. \a monk {illeg} the Master of Palladius, in his book/ de octo vitiosis cogitationibus ita scribit \writes thus/ Libidinis Dæmon, inquit, variorum corporum desiderio animas inflammat, acriusqꝫ eos qui continentiæ student, urget: quo nimirum tanquam frustra laborantes institutum suum abrumpant. Atqꝫ animam inficiens, et dicere et rursus audire verba facit non secus ac si res ipsa cerneretur ac præsto esset. And this I take to be one of the reasons why {illeg} the first Monks who fasted most were most frighted w^th apparitions of Devils as Cassian affirms. Collat. 7. cap 23. < text from f 75r resumes > These are the extremes & betw of intemperance & between these {illeg} such a moderate degree of fasting as best suits with every mans body so as to k w^thout unfitting it for use to keep down lust, is the due mean of temperance. ffor my part I have not met with more \more uncleannesse &/ greater arguments of unchast {sic} \minds/ in any sort of people then in the {illeg} lives of the ^t[2] first Monks: collected \collected/ \a collection of w^ch has been published/ by Rosweydus. |For what else mean their {illeg} doctrine that its better to contend with & vanquish unchast thoughts then not to have them, their frequent visions of naked weomen, their digging up the bodies of dead weomen their lust w^th w{^ch} they burned in lust, their lusting after even after passive Sodomy & their relating these & other such histories w^thout blus{hing}|