[E S. DEINIOL S SERIES III ST. BASIL AND HIS RULE The S. DeinioVs Series THE INSPIRATION OF PRO PHECY. An Essay in the Psychology ofRevelation. By G. C. JOYCE,Warden ofS. DeinioFs Library. 35. 6d. net. DEATH AND THE HEREAFTER. Sermons preached by HARRY DREW, Rector of Hawarden, 1904-1910. With a Memorial Sermon by H. S. HOLLAND. Edited by G. C. JOYCE. 25. 6d. net. IN PREPARATION THE POLITICAL RELATIONS OF CHRISTS MINISTRY: WITH A STUDY OFTHE TEMPTATION. By STEPHEN LIBERTY, M.A. MR. GLADSTONES PLACE IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. By STEPHEN LIBERTY, M.A. AND RULE BASIL HIS ST. A STUDY IN EARLY MONASTICISM BY E. F. MORISON, B.D. SUB-WARDEN OF S. DEINIOI/S LIBRARY LATE SCHOLAR OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD THEODORET, Ep. cxlvi. HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK, TORONTO, MELBOURNE AND BOMBAY IQI2 OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY TO HOMES DUDDEN F. THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY A FORMER PUPIL I PREFACE SOME three years ago I was asked to read theAscetica of St. Basil for the Lexicon of Patristic Greek which is being compiled under the auspices of the Central Society of Sacred Study. As the contents of these writings proved to have more than a philological interest, I have therefore ventured to summarize the information which they contain with regard to the theory and practice of Basilian monasticism. And I have been the more emboldened to do so from the fact that the subject has received but scant attention in this country. To foreign scholars I have acknow ledged my indebtedness in the bibliography appended. St. Basilhimselfl admonishes us not to pass another s knowledge for our own, as depraved women their supposititious children, but to refer it candidly to the true parent . And in the same passage he tells us not to interrupt a profitable speaker, or to desire ambitiously to put in a word of one s own . Hence my chief endeavour has been that St. Basil may tell his own tale. The Ascetica have never yet been translated into English, and I have therefore used my own rendering 1 Ep. 2. 5. PREFACE viii in quotation and in the Appendix. In quoting from the Letters, I have used, with a few slight changes, the translations by Newman and Blomfield Jackson. My best thanks are due to the Rev. T. J. Hardy for some useful suggestions, and to Dr. Joyce for most kindly allowing this book to appear in the S. Beimel s Series.