John Cassian brought the teaching of the Egyptian monks to the West: the twelve books of the Institutes on the monk's life and the eight principal faults, the twenty-four Conferences with the Abbots of Egypt, and his seven books On the Incarnation against Nestorius. Modern English from the Post-Nicene Fathers translation.
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Contents
The Conferences, Conference 7
1The Chastity of Abbot Serenus2Serenus Asks About Our Thoughts3Our Wandering Thoughts4Serenus on the Nature of the Mind5The Centurion, a Picture of the Perfect Mind6Persevering in the Care of Our Thoughts7A Question on the Wandering Mind and Its Enemies8God’s Help and the Power of Free Will9A Question on the Soul’s Union with Demons10How Unclean Spirits Are Joined to Human Souls11An Objection from Those Possessed by Spirits12How Unclean Spirits Rule over the Possessed13Spirit Cannot Enter Spirit, and God Alone Is Bodiless14An Objection: Do Demons See Our Thoughts?15What Demons Can and Cannot Know of Our Thoughts16The Thieves and the Sand17Not Every Demon Can Stir Every Passion18A Question: Do the Demons Keep Any Order?19How Far the Demons Agree Among Themselves20Not All the Hostile Powers Are Equally Bold21The Demons Do Not Fight Without Effort22The Demons Cannot Harm at Will23The Demons Have Less Power Now24How Demons Prepare Their Way into the Body25Those Possessed by Sin Are Worse Off26The Disobedient Prophet and the Illness of Abbot Paul27The Trial of Abbot Moses28Do Not Despise Those Handed Over to Unclean Spirits29Why Are the Possessed Kept from Communion?30Communion, a Medicine for the Possessed31Those Spared Punishment Here Are Most to Be Pitied32The Different Desires of the Evil Spirits33Where Do the Ranks of Evil Powers Come From?34The Answer Put Off to Another Night