OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 61

LXI. To the Presbyter Archibius.
I did not let the two letters which I had just received from you go unheeded, but wrote without delay, and gave my letter to the very devout presbyter Eusebius. In consequence of some delay, it was for the time postponed, for the weather kept the vessels within the harbour, inasmuch as it indicated a coming storm at sea and bade sailors and pilots wait awhile. So I discharged this debt for the time, not that I may cease to be a debtor but that I may increase the debt. For this obligation becomes many times greater by being discharged, inasmuch as they who try to observe the laws of friendship increase the potency of its love, and, blowing sparks into a flame, kindle a greater warmth of affection, while all who are fired thereby strive to surpass one another in love. Receive then my defence, my venerable friend; forgive me; and send me a letter to tell me how you are.

## Footnotes

* ↑ This name suggests correspondence of date with the preceding.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 62

LXII. To the Presbyter John.
A saying of one of the men who used to be called wise was, “Live unseen.” I applaud the sentiment, and have determined to confirm the word by deed, for I see no impropriety in gathering what is good from others, just as bees, it is said, gather their honey and draw forth the sweet dew from bitter herbs as well as from them that are good to eat, and I myself have seen them settling on a barren rock and sucking up its scanty moisture. Far more reasonable is it for them that are credited with reason to harvest what is good from every source; so, as I said, I try to live unseen, and above all men am I a lover of peace and quiet. On his recent return from your part of the world the very pious presbyter Eusebius announced that you had held a certain meeting, and that in the course of conversation mention had been made of me, and that your piety spoke with praise of my insignificant self. I have therefore deemed it ungrateful, and indeed unfair, that he who spoke thus well and kindly of me should fail to be paid in like coin; for although we have done nothing worthy of praise still we admire the intention of them that thus praise us, for such praise is the off-spring of affection. Wherefore I salute your reverence, using as a means of conveyance of my letter him who has brought to me the unwritten words which you have spoken about me. When, most pious sir, you have received my letter, write in reply. You were first in speech; I in writing; and I answer speech by letter. It remains now to you to answer letter for letter.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 3/Council of Constantinople held under Nectarius/Introductory Note

Introductory Note.
The acts of this Council are found in Balsamon, page 761 of the Paris edition, with Hervetus’s translation.  Labbe has taken Balsamon’s text and inserted it into his Collection, from which the following translation is made. There is another version extant in Leunclavius, Jus Græco-Roman. p. 247.
On September the twenty-ninth of the year 394, a magnificent church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, built by the munificence of Rufinus the Prætoreal prefect, and situated at a place called “the Oaks,” a suburb of Chalcedon, was consecrated. Most scholars have adopted Tillemont’s suggestion that this was the occasion which brought the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to Constantinople, and that occasion was taken advantage of to hold a synod with regard to the dispute as to the see of Bostra. At this council, in accordance with the canon of the Second Ecumenical Council, adopted only a dozen years before, Constantinople took the first place and its bishop presided, but so strong was the hold of Alexandria that three centuries afterwards the Quinisext Synod speaks of this council as held “under Nectarius and Theophilus.” In passing it may not be amiss to remark that St. Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Flavian were present at this council! Well may Tillemont exclaim, “It is remarkable to see Theophilus there with Flavian, although they were not in communion with each other.”

## Footnotes

* ↑ Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. II., col. 1151.
* ↑ Tillemont. Mémoires, ix., 592.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 2/Title Page

The Canons of the Council in Trullo;
Often Called
The Quinisext Council.
a.d. 692.
Elenchus.
Introductory Note.
The Canons with the Ancient Epitome and Notes.
Excursus to Canon VI., On the Marriage of the Clergy.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 3/Council of Constantinople held under Nectarius
## Contents

* Title Page
* Introductory Note
* Council of Constantinople Under Nectarius
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 3
## Contents

* Title Page
* Introductory Note
* The Council of Sardica
* The Canons of Carthage
* Council of Constantinople held under Nectarius
* The Council of Carthage held under Cyprian
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 3/Council of Constantinople held under Nectarius/Title Page

Council of Constantinople held under Nectarius.
a.d. 394.
Elenchus.
Introductory Note.
Extracts from the Acts.
Ancient Epitome and Notes.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 3/Introductory Note

Introductory Note.
I have placed the canons of Sardica and those of Carthage and those of the Council held at Constantinople under Nectarius and Theophilus, and that of the Council of Carthage under St. Cyprian, immediately after the Council in Trullo, because in the second canon of that synod they are for the first time mentioned by name as being accepted by the Universal Church.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 2/Canons/Canon XXXVIII

Canon XXXVIII.
The canon which was made by the Fathers we also observe, which thus decreed: If any city be renewed by imperial authority, or shall have been renewed, let the order of things ecclesiastical follow the civil and public models.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon XXXVIII.
If any city is or shall be renewed by the Emperor, the ecclesiastical order shall follow the political and public example.
Van Espen.
The canon of the Fathers which the Synod wishes observed is XVII of Chalcedon, the notes on which see.
Here it must be noted that by “civil and public models” is signified the “pragmatic” or imperial letters, by which the emperors granted to newly raised up or re-edified towns the privilege of other cities, or else annexed them to some Province.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VIII/Chapter 11

Chapter XI.
The punishment of the deceiver and the deceived.
But we ought in this matter, in order that we may shun evil counsels, to learn a special lesson from the fact that though the author of the deception was visited with a fitting punishment and condemnation, yet still the one who was led astray did not go scot free from punishment, although it was somewhat lighter than that of him who was the author of the deception. And this we see was very plainly expressed. For Adam who was deceived, or rather (to use the Apostle’s words) “was not deceived” but, acquiescing in the wishes of her who was deceived, seems to have come to yield a consent that was deadly, is only condemned to labour and the sweat of his brow, which is assigned to him not by means of a curse upon himself, but by means of a curse upon the ground, and its barrenness. But the woman, who persuaded him to this, is visited with an increase of anguish, and pains and sorrow, and also given over to the yoke of perpetual subjection. But the serpent who was the first to incite them to this offence, is punished by a lasting curse. Wherefore we should with the utmost care and circumspection be on our guard against evil counsels, for as they bring punishment upon their authors, so too they do not suffer those who are deceived by them to go free from guilt and punishment.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VII/Chapter 8

Chapter VIII.
The answer on the help of God and the power of free will.
Serenus: No one who has experienced the conflicts of the inner man, can doubt that our foes are continually lying in wait for us. But we mean that they oppose our progress in such a way that we can think of them as only inciting to evil things and not forcing. But no one could altogether avoid whatever sin they were inclined to imprint upon our hearts, if a strong impulse was present to force (evil) upon us, just as it is to suggest it. Wherefore as there is in them ample power of inciting, so in us there is a supply of power of rejection, and of liberty of acquiescing. But if we are afraid of their power and assaults, we may also claim the protection and assistance of God against them, of which we read: “For greater is He who is in us than he who is in this world:” and His aid fights on our side with much greater power than their hosts fight against us; for God is not only the suggester of what is good, but the maintainer and insister of it, so that sometimes He draws us towards salvation even against our will and without our knowing it. It follows then that no one can be deceived by the devil but one who has chosen to yield to him the consent of his own will: as Ecclesiastes clearly puts it in these words: “For since there is no gainsaying by those who do evil speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is filled within them to do evil.” It is therefore clear that each man goes wrong from this; viz., that when evil thoughts assault him he does not immediately meet them with refusal and contradiction, for it says: “resist him, and he will flee from you.”

## Footnotes

* ↑ 1 John iv. 4.
* ↑ Eccl. viii. 11 (LXX.).
* ↑ S. James iv. 7.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VIII/Chapter 10

Chapter X.
The answer about the beginning of the devil’s fall.
Serenus: The passage in Genesis shows that that was not the beginning of his fall and
ruin, as before their deception it takes the view that he had already been branded with the ignominy of the name of the serpent, where it says: “But the serpent was wiser” or as the Hebrew copies express it, “more subtle than all the beasts of the earth, which the Lord God had made.” You see then that he had fallen away from his angelic holiness even before he deceived the first man, so that he not only deserved to be stamped with the ignominy of this title, but actually excelled all other beasts of the earth in the subterfuges of wickedness. For Holy Scripture would not have designated a good angel by such a term, nor would it say of those who were still continuing in that state of bliss: “But the serpent was wiser than all the beasts of the earth.” For this title could not possibly be applied I say not to Gabriel or Michæl, but it would not even be suitable to any good man. And so the title of serpent and the comparison to beasts most clearly suggests not the dignity of an angel but the infamy of an apostate. Finally the occasion of the envy and seduction, which led him to deceive man, arose from the ground of his previous fall, in that he saw that man, who had but recently been formed out of the dust of the ground, was to be called to that glory, from which he remembered that he himself, while still one of the princes, had fallen. And so that first fall of his, which was due to pride, and which obtained for him the name of the serpent, was followed by a second owing to envy: and as this one found him still in the possession of something upright so that he could enjoy some interchange of conference and counsel with man, by the Lord’s sentence he was very properly cast down to the lowest depth, that he might no longer walk as before erect, and looking up on high, but should cleave to the ground and creep along, and be brought low upon his belly and feed upon the earthly food and works of sins, and henceforward proclaim his secret hostility, and put between himself and man an enmity that is to our advantage, and a discord that is to our profit, so that while men are on their guard against him as a dangerous enemy, he can no longer injure them by a deceptive show of friendship.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Gen. iii. 1.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VII/Chapter 6

Chapter VI.
Of perseverance as regards care of the thoughts.
But we shall find out by our own experience that we can and ought to cling to the Lord if we have our wills mortified and the desires of this world cut off, and we shall be taught by the authority of those who in converse with the Lord say in all confidence: “My soul hath stuck close to Thee;” and: “I have stuck unto Thy testimonies, O Lord;” and: “It is good for me to stick fast to God;” and: “He who cleaveth to the Lord, is one spirit.” We ought not then to be wearied out by these wanderings of mind and relax from our fervour: for “he that tilleth his ground shall be filled with bread: but he that followeth idleness shall be filled with poverty.” Nor should we be drawn away from being intent on this watchfulness through a dangerous despair, for “in every one who is anxious there is abundance, for he who is pleasant and free from grief will be in want;” and again: “a man in grief labours for himself, and forcibly brings about his own destruction.” Moreover also: “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force,” for no virtue is acquired without effort, nor can anyone attain to that mental stability which he desires without great sorrow of heart, for “man is born to trouble,” and in order that he may be able to attain to “the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” he must ever be on the watch with still greater intentness, and toil with ceaseless carefulness. But to the fulness of this measure no one will ever attain, but one who has considered it beforehand and been trained to it now and has had some foretaste of it while still in this world, and being marked a most precious member of Christ, has possessed in the flesh an earnest of that “joint” by which he can be united to His body: desiring one thing alone, thirsting for but one thing, ever bringing not only his acts but even his thoughts to bear on one thing alone; viz., that he may even now keep as an earnest that which is said of the blessed life of the saints hereafter; viz., that “God may be” to him “all in all.”

## Footnotes

* ↑ Ps. xlii. (lxiii.) 9; cxviii. (cxix.) 31; lxxi. (lxxiii.) 28; 1 Cor. vi. 17.
* ↑ Prov. xxviii. 19.
* ↑ Prov. xiv. 23; xvi. 26 (LXX.).
* ↑ S. Matt. xi. 12.
* ↑ Job v. 7.
* ↑ Eph. iv. 13.
* ↑ Ibid.
* ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 28.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VII/Chapter 7

Chapter VII.
A question on the roving tendency of the mind and the attacks of spiritual wickedness.
Germanus: Perhaps this tendency of the mind to rove might to some extent be checked were it not that so great a swam of enemies surrounded it, and ceaselessly urged it toward what it has no wish for, or rather whither the roving character of its own nature drives it. And since such numberless foes, and those so powerful and terrible, surround it, we should not fancy that it was possible for them to be withstood especially by this weak flesh of ours, were we not encouraged to this view by your words as if by oracles from heaven.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VII/Chapter 9

Chapter IX.
A question on the union of the soul with devils.
Germanus: What, I pray you, is that indiscriminate and common union of the soul with those evil spirits, by which it is possible for them to be (I will not say joined with but) united to it in such a way that they can imperceptibly talk with it, and find their way into it and suggest to it whatever they want, and incite it to whatever they like, and look into and see its thoughts and movements; and the result is so close a union between them and the soul that it is almost impossible without God’s grace to distinguish between what results from their instigation, and what from our free will.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VIII

VIII. The Second Conference of Abbot Serenus.
On Principalities.

## Contents

* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Chapter 3
* Chapter 4
* Chapter 5
* Chapter 6
* Chapter 7
* Chapter 8
* Chapter 9
* Chapter 10
* Chapter 11
* Chapter 12
* Chapter 13
* Chapter 14
* Chapter 15
* Chapter 16
* Chapter 17
* Chapter 18
* Chapter 19
* Chapter 20
* Chapter 21
* Chapter 22
* Chapter 23
* Chapter 24
* Chapter 25
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XI/John Cassian/Conferences of John Cassian, Part I/Conference VIII/Chapter 1

Chapter I.
Of the hospitality of Abbot Serenus.
When we had finished the duties of the day, and the congregation had been dismissed from Church we returned to the old man’s cell, and enjoyed a most sumptuous repast. For instead of the sauce which with a few drops of oil spread over it was usually set on the table for his daily meal, he mixed a little decoction and poured over it a somewhat more liberal allowance of oil than usual; for each of them when he is going to partake of his daily repast, pours those drops of oil on, not that he may receive any enjoyment from the taste of it (for so limited is the supply that it is hardly enough I will not say to line the passage of his throat and jaws, but even to pass down it) but that using it, he may keep down the pride of his heart (which is certain to creep in stealthily and surely if his abstinence is any stricter) and the incitements to vainglory, for as his abstinence is practised with the greater secrecy, and is carried on without anyone to see it, so much the more subtly does it never cease to tempt the man who conceals it. Then he set before us table salt, and three olives each: after which he produced a basket containing parched vetches which they call trogalia, from which we each took five grains, two prunes and a fig apiece. For it is considered wrong for anyone to exceed that amount in that desert. And when we had finished this repast and had begun to ask him again for his promised solution of the question, “Let us hear,” said the old man, “your question, the consideration of which we postponed till the present time.”

## Footnotes

* ↑ Cf. Horace, De Arte Poetica, l. 249.
# No Name/Between the Scenes 4/XII

XII.
From Mr. Pendril to Miss Garth.
"Serle Street, October 29th.
"DEAR MISS GARTH—I have only a moment to assure you of the sorrow with which I have read your letter. The circumstances under which you urge your request, and the reasons you give for making it, are sufficient to silence any objection I might otherwise feel to the course you propose. A trustworthy person, whom I have myself instructed, will start for Allonby to-day, and as soon as I receive any news from him, you shall hear of it by special messenger. Tell Miss Vanstone this, and pray add the sincere expression of my sympathy and regard.
"Faithfully yours,
"WILLIAM PENDRIL."
# No Name/Between the Scenes 4/VIII

VIII.
From Norah Vanstone to Mr. Pendril.
"Portland Place, Wednesday.
"DEAR MR. PENDRIL—Pray don't think I am ungrateful for your kindness. Indeed, indeed I am not! But I must see Mrs. Lecount. You were not aware when you wrote to me that I had received a few lines from Magdalen—not telling me where she is, but holding out the hope of our meeting before long. Perhaps Mrs. Lecount may have something to say to me on this very subject. Even if it should not be so, my sister—do what she may—is still my sister. I can't desert her; I can't turn my back on any one who comes to me in her name. You know, dear Mr. Pendril, I have always been obstinate on this subject, and you have always borne with me. Let me owe another obligation to you which I can never return, and bear with me still!
"Need I say that I willingly accept that part of your advice which refers to Miss Garth? I have already written to beg that she will come here at four to-morrow afternoon. When you see Mrs. Lecount, please inform her that Miss Garth will be with me, and that she will find us both ready to receive her here to-morrow at four o'clock. Gratefully yours,
"NORAH VANSTONE."
# No Name/Between the Scenes 4/XI

XI.
From Mrs. Lecount to Mr. de Bleriot.
"October 28th.
"DEAR SIR—I have found the trace you wanted. Mrs. Noel Vanstone has written to her sister. The letter contains no address, but the postmark is Allonby, in Cumberland. From Allonby, therefore, the inquiries must begin. You have already in your possession the personal description of both husband and wife. I urgently recommend you not to lose one unnecessary moment. If it is possible to send to Cumberland immediately on receipt of this letter, I beg you will do so.
"I have another word to say before I close my note—a word about the discovery in Mr. Loscombe's office.
"It is no surprise to me to hear that Mr. Noel Vanstone has made his will since his marriage, and I am at no loss to guess in whose favor the will is made. If I succeed in finding my master, let that person get the money if that person can. A course to follow in this matter has presented itself to my mind since I received your letter, but my ignorance of details of business and intricacies of law leaves me still uncertain whether my idea is capable of ready and certain execution. I know no professional person whom I can trust in this delicate and dangerous business. Is your large experience in other matters large enough to help me in this? I will call at your office to-morrow at two o'clock, for the purpose of consulting you on the subject. It is of the greatest importance, when I next see Mr. Noel Vanstone, that he should find me thoroughly prepared beforehand in this matter of the will. Your much obliged servant,
"VIRGINIE LECOUNT."
# No Name/Between the Scenes 4/XIV

XIV.
From Mrs. Lecount to Mr. de Bleriot.
"November 1st.
"DEAR SIR—One line to say that your letter has just reached me at my lodging in London. I think I know who sent the strange man to inquire at Allonby. It matters little. Before he finds out his mistake, I shall be at Dumfries. My luggage is packed, and I start for the North by the next train.
"Your deeply obliged
"VIRGINIE LECOUNT."