Letter 100: Against theNovatians Say to the disciple of Novatian’s pride: why are you foolishly boasting as if [you were] clean?

Excessive eating is not nourishment but surfeit, and is both called and recognized as such. Surfeit is the father of insolence, and insolence the father of passions, as is recorded to have occurred in the wilderness of old. "For they were filled," it says, "and rose up to play." Therefore, lest we play at intemperance, through which even forgetfulness of God is risked, let us bridle its cause -- surfeit -- by attending to necessary and moderate eating, through which both our strength will be sustained and the war of gluttonous drunkenness will have no power.

Against theNovatians Say to the disciple of Novatian’s pride: why are you foolishly boasting as if [you were] clean? Why are you pretending that you are sinless? Why deny the (fault) common to nature? Isaiah declares himself unclean; David knows that every man is a liar and that all were conceived and carried in the womb in sin. God Himself knows that human beings are devotedly attached to evil and require only the mercy of divine kindness- and do you arrogantly boast of being clean? Either then give over lying or from what you are doing be exposed as a laughing-stock or indeed mightily shameful.

ΤΟΓ. – ΦΙΛΑΓΡΙΩ Περὶ γαστριμαργίας. Ἡ περιττὴ μετάληψις, οὐ βρῶσις, ἀλλὰ κόρος καὶ ἔστι καὶ καλεῖται. Κόρος δὲ, ὕβρεως πατήρ· ὕβρις δὲ, παθῶν, ὡς ἐν ἐρήμῳ πάλαι γεγενῆσθαι ἱστόρηται. Ἐχορτάσθησαν γὰρ, φησὶ, καὶ ἀνέστησαν παίζειν. Ἵνα τοίνυν μὴ παίξωμεν ἀκρασίαν, δι' ἧς καὶ Θεοῦ κινδυνεύεται λήθη, τὸν αἴτιον τούτων χαλινώσωμεν κόρον, βρώσει ἀναγκαίᾳ καὶ ἐμμέτρῳ προσέχοντες, δι' ἧς καὶ ἡ δύναμις προσέσται τῷ ὀνόματι, καὶ ἰσχὺν οὐχ ἔξει τῆς γαστριμάργου μέθης ὁ πόλεμος. Λ'. – ΖΩΣΙΜΟ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ. Μανθάνω ὡς, ἐπὶ μὲν τοῖς δοκοῦσιν ἐπονειδίστοις, λίαν ἄχθῃ· ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς ὄντως οὖσιν, οὐ μόνον οὐ και ταδύῃ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀναβρύνῃ. Τὸ μὲν ἐκ δούλου σε γε γενῆσθαι πατρὸς, ὅπερ οὐκ ἔστι προαιρέσεως ὄνειδος, ΛΗ΄. – ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΩ ΚΟΜΗΤΙ Σοφοῦ καὶ ἀνδρείου ἀνδρὸς ὁ λόγος ὀφείλει μαρτυρεῖν τῆς ἐπὶ πᾶσι προαιρέσεως, ἐπείπερ καὶ σὺ τοῖς νῦν οὐδὲ τοὺς δεινοτάτους φερωμένους περιορᾷς. ΤΩ ΑΥΤΩ Ἐπειδὴ ἀνάγκη φέρειν τὰ λυπηρά, καίπερ ὄντα δύσφορα (τὸ γὰρ ὀλιγωρεῖν οὐ μειοῖ, τάχα δὲ καὶ αὔξει τὰ δεινά), γενναίως ἔνεγκον τὰ συμβεβηκότα, καὶ μάλιστα τῷ παρεληλυθέναι κατὰ τὸ πλεῖστον μέρος ἐχνενευρισμένα. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἀποφοιτήσας πειρασμός αὐτίκα μάλα πρὸς λήθην βλέπει, ὁ δὲ προσδοκώμε- νος τοσαυτάκις ἀνιᾷ, ὁσάκις ἂν ἐλπισθῇ. ΡΞΖ΄. – ΚΟΜΙΤΙ Ἔχεσθαι τοῦ καλοῦ, καὶ ἀπαραίτητον εἶναι τὸ βέλος.