The holy bishops and the guides of the monastic discipline, from the conflicts and struggles which they underwent, 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; and we, on the other hand, having their recorded conduct, consider the work to be small. “Renunciation,” therefore, must be the forgetting of the former way of thinking and the refusal of fellowship; and “subjection” must be the cessation and dissolution from the people on earth, just as it stands written.
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.
The holy bishops and the guides of the monastic discipline, from the conflicts and struggles which they underwent, 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; and we, on the other hand, having their recorded conduct, consider the work to be small. “Renunciation,” therefore, must be the forgetting of the former way of thinking and the refusal of fellowship; and “subjection” must be the cessation and dissolution from the people on earth, just as it stands written.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.