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Simplicity According to Cassian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

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From a psychological point of view, what is it that distinguishes the life of a monk as described by Cassian from the ordinary life of a person living in the world? The question is an interesting one, and it is suggested that the answer lies in the striking simplification (or better, the simplicity) of the life of the monk as compared with life in the world. This fact, incidentally, is implied in the word monachus, which means one living alone for a single purpose.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1956 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 This paper has been put together by a monk of Parkminster from the notes of a thesis presented to the Faculty of Arts in the University of Ottawa by Hans G. Furth of New York. In the following footnotes, ‘C’ indicated the Collationes of Cassian, ‘I’ his De Institutis Coenobiorum.

2 cf. C.i. 4, 5 and 7.

3 C. ix. 2.

4 cf. C.x. II.

5 C.xxiv. 6.

6 C.ix. 6.

7 cf. C.vii. 6.

8 C.xiv.13.

9 C.xii.8.

10 C.iii. 10.

11 cf. C.vi. 9; C.xvii. II and I. vii. 21.

12 I.iv. 24.

13 I.vi. 9.

14 I.iv. 38.

15 William James: Talks to Teachers, Holt, New York 1899.

16 C.vi. 12.

17 I.ix. 6.