had gone forth, he lifted up his sword to slay him, but his hand withered straightway; and he went to the church and told the people there what the old man had done. And the fathers sent after him and brought him there, and having upbraided him, and beaten him with many stripes they wished to drive him out of the monastery; but he entreated them, saying, “Allow me [to stay] here that I may repent, for God’s sake,” and they separated him [from the brotherhood] for three years, and they laid down the command that no man was to go to him. And he passed three years in coming [to the church] Sunday by Sunday, and in repenting, and he besought [the fathers] always to pray for him, and at length the devil entered into him that had committed the act of which the old man had been accused, and, being urged by him, he said, “I committed the act.” Then all the people were gathered together, and they went to the old man and expressed their penitence, and said unto him, “Forgive us, O father”; and he said unto them, “I have indeed forgiven you, but it is impossible for me to remain with you henceforth, because I have not found in any one of you discretion sufficient to make him to sympathize with me.” And so he departed from them. Behold, how temptations come upon holy men!
Chapter xl: Of Abba Macarius who was accused of committing fornication
ABBA MACARIUS used to tell a story about himself, and to say that when he was a boy he dwelt in a certain cell in Egypt, and that the people came and made him the priest in the village, and that as he did not wish to receive [the office of priest] he fled to another place, and took up his abode in a cell which was not very far from the habitations of man. And a certain young man who feared God used to come and take away the work of the hands of the blessed man, and to minister unto him. And it came to pass that, as a result of temptation, a certain virgin in the village fell into iniquity (?), and conceived a child, and the folk said unto her, “By whom art thou with child?” And she said, “By that monk who liveth in the desert”; and they went out, and brought him into their village, and smote him sorely, and they hung round his neck black pots, and the ears (handles) of empty pans, and they made him to go round about through the markets of their village, and they mocked at him and buffeted him, and said, “This is the monk who hath seduced our daughter! Let him be hanged! Let him be hanged!” And they beat him [nearly] to death.
Then came one of the old men of the village and said [unto
