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Book VI. On the Spirit of Fornication. We Have Thought Best to Omit Altogether the Translation of This Book · Book X. Of the Spirit of Accidie

Chapter I

Page 461 of 1,144

How our sixth combat is against the spirit of accidie, and what its character is.

Our sixth combat is with what the Greeks call akedia, which we may term weariness or distress of heart. This is akin to dejection, and is especially trying to solitaries, and a dangerous and frequent foe to dwellers in the desert; and especially disturbing to a monk about the sixth hour, like some fever which seizes him at stated times, bringing the burning heat of its attacks on the sick man at usual and regular hours. Lastly, there are some of the elders who declare that this is the "midday demon" spoken of in the ninetieth Psalm.964

Notes

  1. 963

    See the note on Bk. V. c. i.

  2. 964

    (xci.) 6, where the Latin "et dæmonio meridiano" follows the LXX. kai daimoniou mesembrinou, instead of "the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Volume 11, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (1890–1900). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.