Hiding No Thought from the Elder

By these practices, then, they hasten to shape and instruct those they are training, giving them, so to speak, the alphabet and first syllables on the road to perfection. For by these they can clearly see whether the men are grounded in a false and imagined humility or in a true one. So that they may easily arrive at this, they are next taught not to hide, out of false shame, any itching thoughts in their hearts, but to lay them bare to the elder as soon as they arise. In judging those thoughts they are not to trust anything to their own discernment, but to accept on trust that a thing is good or bad as the elder, after examining it, considers and declares it to be. The result is that our cunning adversary cannot in any way outwit a young and inexperienced monk, or take advantage of his ignorance, or deceive by any trick one whom he sees protected, not by his own discernment, but by his elder’s, and who cannot be persuaded to hide from his elder the suggestions that the devil has shot like fiery arrows into his heart. For the devil, subtle as he is, cannot ruin or destroy a young monk unless he has enticed him, either through pride or through shame, to hide his thoughts. So they lay it down as a universal and clear proof that a thought comes from the devil if we are ashamed to disclose it to the elder. [a]