IV. SOURCES AND INFLUENCE

Personal Experience and Tradition
The Ladder is both a highly personal work, the fruit of creative originality, and at the same time a traditional work, drawing upon the past.
To St. John Climacus, as we have seen,^'' the Christian life was a matter of direct experience. It is not enough, he insists, for the spiri- tual teacher merely to repeat with accuracy things said by others; each must relive for himself what he has inherited from the past. The Ladder is therefore, as might be expected, strongly personal in charac- ter. John's approach is empirical. He often mentions things that he
214. In Gregory of Nyssa, epektasis is connected with apophatic theology as well as iove: progress is infinite because God can never be known exhaustively, This apophatic aspect oi epektasis is not brought out in The Ladder.
215. 30(11568), p. 2K6.
216. 30(1160D), p. 290.
217. See above, pp. 7-8.
58
INTRODUCTION
has himself seen and heard, and men whom he has himself met such as John the Sabbaite^'^ or George Arsilaites.^i" But, while John speaks about the experience of others, with the reticence characteris- tic of the Christian East he keeps silent, except on one occasion, about the events m his own inner life. In Step 28 on prayer, for example, we may be confident that he is speaking from direct experience yet in tact he makes no such claim for himself.
At the same time throughout The Ladder personal experience is interwoven with past tradition. John appeals frequently to the au- thority of the Fathers," When he wrote his book, monasticism had ; already existed as an established institution for more than three cen- , turies^The golden age of the pioneers was long since over; there ex- isted by John s day a mass of precedents, regulations and written ' texts, John ,s closely familiar with much of this earlier material al- though insisting on his lack of learning, he is in reality far more wide- ly read than he would have us believe. The Ladder, as well as being a work of personal experience, is a work of synthesis, presenting in I summary form the monastic teachings of t'he past three hundred years, integrating mto a single whole the many disparate strands of previous tradition. It is a first, and remarkably successful, attempt to produce a directory" of mona.stic spirituality.
I As a synthesizer, John Climacus resembles his contemporary Maximus the Confessor. What Maximus achieves in the field of Chris- lology, John accomplishes in that of ascetic theology. Both lived in .he days of Mohammed and witnessed the sudden Arab expansion that followed the Prophet's death. They both stood at a point of tran- ■sitron, at the end of an era, when the newly-established power of Is- lam was altering forever the face of the Eastern Mediterranean and of Morth Afnca. Each ,n his own way gathered together the fruits of the past and transmitted them to a new age.
What are John's sources? This is not easy to determine; for, while he occasionally cites them by name, more often he borrows anony- mously. It IS at once clear that he is indebted first of all to the Bible from which he quotes with great frequency. Next to Scripture his Chief deb. ,s to I he Say,„f,s of the Desert Fathers-known in Greek as the Ocront.kon and in Latin as the ,ipof>hthcgmata Patnm-^whkh dales
JIH, 4 (72(IA-724»), p|,, ] u-j, Jl'>, ^7(I|I2M), p. W>
5V
INTRODUCTION
back substantially to the fourth and fifth centuries. ^^o Even when he is not quoting directly from this, it has often influenced his style and presentation. At the same time, in The Ladder John draws together and unites the two major strands in the early spiritual tradition of the Christian East: the "intellectualist" approach exemplified by Eva- grius of Pontus, and the "experiential" approach represented by the Homilies attributed to St. Macarius.
Although John mentions Evagrius only once, and then with dis- approval,^^' and although he makes far less use of technical Evagrian terminology than Maximus does, yet traces of Evagrius' influence can be seen in many parts of The Ladder. John makes use of the basic dis- tinction between the "active" and the "contemplative" life (praxis! theoria),^^^ although this is not followed out consistently in The Lad- der; he derives from Evagrius much of his demonology and his analy- sis of the vices,223 ^y^^ ^lose link between dispassion and love,224 a^d the conception of prayer as the laying aside of thoughts.^^^ But John discards altogether Evagrius' speculative cosmology; he is less system- atic than Evagrius, and more concerned to emphasize the personal and conscious experience of grace.
Whether or not John was directly acquainted with the Macarian writings — for he never cites them explicitly — he agrees with them at many points, as for example in his view of the heart as the unifying
220. From the Apophthegma!a Climacu.s derives his stories about Antony, Arsenius and others in 4 (717C). p. 114; 15 (HS.'iC, 8H9C, 8^20), pp. 175, 178, 179; 191V37D), p. 1V5; 25(W7C), p. 225; 27 (111 2D), p. 27U; 29(1148CD), p. 283. He is also familiar with similar material in other early monastic texts: e.g. Pachomius, First (ireek Life {27 [1117A], p. 273); Palladiu.s, The Lausiac History (24 [984C), p. 217; 25 [99/0, p. 225); John Moschus, The Spiritual Meadow (2fi [H)I6B1, p. 2.M); The Story of Thais (26 [1064C], p. 249). For de- tailed references, sec the relevant footnotes below,
221. 14 (865 A), p. 166.
222. See, for example, 4 (677D, 685 A), pp. 91. 95; 26 (102 IB, 1068B), pp. 2 35, 250; cf above, p. 12. But John nowhere use.s Evagriu,s' threefold scheme of praktiki, physiki ("natural contemplation"), and theana of God.
22 3. See below, pp. 62-66. Climacus seems to be familiar with the work attributed to Nilus, but probably written by Evagrius, On the liight Spirits of Wickedness {PG 79, ! 145-64); also with another compilation circulating under the name of Nilus, On the f-Agbi I-k'tl Thoughts {PC 79, 1436-64), which is in fact a translation (in abbreviated form) from the Latin of St. John Cassian: see S. Marsili, "Resume de Cassien sous ie nom de saint Xil", fievue d'ascelique ct de mystique xv (1934), pp. 241-5.
224. See above, p. 33.
225. See above, p. 52.
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INTRODUCTION
center of the human person, body, soul and spirit,^^^ and in the pri- macy which he assigns to love. But he speaks far less than the Homilies do about the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Ladder is of course by no means the earliest work in which there is to be found a convergence between the Evagrian and the Ma- carian approaches. A similar rapprochement is already evident in two fifth-century writers, St. Mark the Ascetic and St. Diadochus of Pho- tice. Even though John does not mention either of them by name, there can be little doubt that he is familiar with their writings. From Mark almost certainly he derives his analysis of temptation in Step 15.^2' Points of resemblance between Diadochus and John include their teaching on the invocation or remembrance of Jesus; a cautious attitude towards dreams;^^* the distinction between the two forms of the withdrawal of God's grace — between the temporary and provi- dential abandonment permitted by God for our own good, and the far graver abandonment due to God's turning away from our sin;^'^^ and the belief that anger can be turned to good use.^^°
In his treatment of the Jesus Prayer, John is probably influenced also by the school of Gaza (early sixth century) — by St. Varsanuphius, St. John the Prophet, and their disciple St. Dorotheus — but once again he does not mention them by name. His understanding of spiri- tual fatherhood seems likewise to be indebted to the school of Gaza; and his moderate use of Evagrian terminology, in a not very system- atic manner, resembles that found in Dorotheus. Another Palestinian writer, not explicitly cited, on whom John seems to draw is Abba Isa- ias (fifth century); both have similar views on what is "according to nature."^^'
L
226. See 28 (1 I40B), p. 281, quoted above, p. 53. Cf. 4 (700C), p. 103: the gateway of the heart, 7 (8()5A), p. 138; "Withdraw into your heart"; 15 (900C), p. !84: prayer of the liciirt; 28 (1 137B), p. 280: watching over the heart. 'Fhe phrase "perception {atsthisis) of the heart" occurs frequently.
227. See below, pp. 182-3 (with the notes). Mark is also cited, but not by name, in J) (965D). p, 208.
i» 228, 3 (669H-672B), pp. 89-90; cf. Diadochus, Cetittiry 36-38 {Phil., pp. 263-4).
229. See 4 (7((8H), p. 108; 5 (7770, p. 129; 21 (948A), p. 200; 26 (l()fi9A), p. 252; and tn particular 7 (KHOJ, p 143; cf Diadochus, (.'eiitury Hf, {Phil., p. 2K6), using the same iiictiiiihcji of a inoiticr \»ilh herchikl.
2111 26(ll(6Ml)), p, 251, cf Diadochus, Cenliiry 62 {Phil., p. 272).
2.)l. 26 (I068(:D), |). 251; cf. Isaias, Di.seoiirte ii: eil. Av^jouslinos ( |iTHMilcin |9| I), pp. 4^A; Hcc also Phil , |). 22.
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INTRODUCTION
Writers to whom John does refer by name include Origen (men- tioned once, with disapprovalX^-*^ St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the "Theologian" (cited several times),^^-'' St. John Cassian^-''* and St. Ephraim the Syrian^-'^ (both cited once). He does not mention St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and it is not clear how far he is influenced by the Dionysian writings.
The Classification of the Vices
A particular problem arises over the classification of the vices in Steps 8-23 of The Ladder. Here, regarding blasphemy as a vice distinct from pride but treating sleepiness as an aspect of insensitivity, we have a list of fourteen vices. It is not at first sight clear how to relate this to the more usual list of eight "evil thoughts" found in Eva- grius;^^''
gluttony
lust
avarice
dejection (lypi)
anger
despondency (akidia)
vainglory
pride
The order in which Evagrius lists the vices is deliberate. It reflects, first, the general development of the spiritual life: beginners contend against the grosser and more materialistic sins (gluttony, lust, ava- rice); those in the middle of the journey are confronted by the more inward temptations of discouragement and irritability (dejection, an-
2 32. .'i (7S0D), p. 131.
233. \'i (880C), note 64, p. 17); 22 (94yA), p. 201 — but this is possibly a reference to Pope Gregory the Great (see below, note 246); 26 (1064.^), p. 24H; 28 (1 1 37C), p. 280.
234. 4 (71 7B), p. 114. For Climacus' debt to Cassian, and al.so for the manner in which he transforms what he borrows, see Archimandrite Sophrony, "De la necessitc des trois renoncements chez St. Cassien le Romain et St, Jean Climaque", Studia Putrti- tka V {.Texte und Vntersuchungen 80: Berlin 1962), pp. 393-40(1.
235. 29(114aD), p. 283, cited simply as "the Syrian."
236. On the Eight Thoughts, 1 {PG 40, 1272A). Evagrius is probably drawing upon Origen: see I. Hausherr, "L'origine de la theorie orientale des huit peches capitaux", Orientalia Christiana xxx, no. 86 (Rome 193 3), pp. 164-75.
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INTRODUCTION
ger, despondency); the more advanced, already initiated into contem- plation, still need to guard themselves against the most subtle and "spiritual" of the vices, vainglory and pride, Secondly, the list of eight vices reflects the threefold division of the human person into the appetitive, the incensive and the intelligent aspect (epithymitikon, thymikon, logikon).'^^'' Gluttony, lust and avarice are more especially linked with the appetitive aspect; dejection, anger and despondency, with the incensive power; vainglory and pride, with the intelligent aspect. ^^*
Evagrius' disciple, St. John Cassian, transmitted this list of the eight "thoughts" to the West, but made one change in the sequence: to make more evident the connection between dejection and despon- dency, he moved anger up to the fourth place, after avarice.^^^ Fur- ther changes were made by St. Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome (."190-604), known in the East as "Gregory the Dialogist." He set pride in a class on its own, as the source and mother of all other vices, and omitted dejection, regarding this as the same as despondency, while adding envy to the list. In this way he produced the catalogue of the "seven deadly sins," familiar to the Western Middle Ages:^''°
inanis gloria (vainglory)
invidia (envy)
ira (anger)
tristitia (dejection)
avaritia (avarice)
ventris ingluvies (gluttony)
luxuria (lust)
237. On this threefold division, see the note in Phi!., pp. 357-8, First formulated by I'lato (sec Rcpuhiic, Book iv, 434D-441C), it is widely used by the Fathers: Evagrius, I'taclicus >i'> (ed. A. fiuillaumont. Sources chretiennes 171 [Paris 1971], pp. 680-9), says that he has taken it from Gregory of Na^.ian/.us (.see his Poems, 11, i, 47: PG 37, 1381A- 1 '84A). rOr Cilimacus' use of the Platonic scheme, .see for example Past. 15 (1205B), p. 2-19.
238 1 he vices arc cxjilicitly linked with the three aspects of the .soul in John (!as- lltfii, ( Miifcivnccf Ksiv, 1 5; Cussiiin gives a list of eighteen vices in all, including :ill cighi from ihc l'',vagrian lisl. Oonilleau, US viii, col. 377, a.ssimilates Climacus' lis! to ihat of (iild.iiiin, bu( ihc correspnndcnce is by no means exact.
2Jy. Sec Institutes, IJiHiks v-xii. ? 24(), Moralia xxxi, 87 (/'/. 76, 621).
rt3
INTRODUCTION
St. John Climacus does not follow any of these schemes exactly. He points out that sin, being by its very nature disordered and amor- phous, cannot be classified with precision.^*' He is familiar with the eightfold scheme of Evagrius,^*^ and like Evagrius he sometimes makes a distinction between the three chief sins of gluttony, vainglo- ry and avarice, and the remaining five which spring from them.^"*^ But, alongside this eightfold scheme, John is also familiar with a se- venfold scheme, for which he expresses a preference: this treats vain- glory and pride as a single vice.^** In practice, however, he usually distinguishes between the two, discussing them separately in Steps 22 and 23; on the other hand he commonly omits dejection or gloom (lypi) from his list,^'*^ presumably because like Pope Gregory he con- siders this identical with despondency (akidia); and so, after all, he ends up with the number seven (for he omits envy, which figures on Gregory's list).^*^ Thus in Step 29 he gives the following list:^*^
gluttony
lechery (lust)
cupidity (avarice)
despondency
anger
vainglory
pride
241. 26(in2lD). p. 23.1,
242. 1.! (HM)C), p. 163: 17 (929B), p. 190,
243. 17 di.stinction lietueen the five and the three, see 27 (1 109A), p. 267.
244. 22 ('MHD-V4VA), p. 201.
24.5, Lypi is mentioned, however, in the list of the passions that assail the monk at different times of the day; 27 (1 1 12C), p. 269.
246, Was Climacus aware of Pope Gregory's list? In 22 (949A), p. 201, when men- tioning the sevenfold scheme as distinguished from the eightfold, he refers to "Gregor\ the Theologian" as one of those who prefer to reckon the vices as seven in number. Normally this would mean Gregory of Na?,ianzus; but I know of no such teaching in his works. John may therefore mean Pope Gregory; perhaps "Theologos" is a scribal error for "Dialogos" (cf. Couilleau, liS viii, col. 376). But John's list is not the same as Gregory the Great's: for, although both leave out dejection, John retains pride as one of the seven, and does not include envy.
247. 29(1149AB), pp. 283-4.
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INTRODUCTION
Apart from the fact that dejection is omitted and that despondency precedes anger, these are the same as the eight "evil thoughts" of Eva- grius, and are given in the same order.
In Steps 8-23, however, John expands Evagrius' list by adding seven further vices, dependent on the primary seven. In his list of the primary seven he follows Evagrius, except that he omits dejection; but he moves anger and despondency up to the beginning, thus plac- ing the vices of the soul's incensive aspect before those of its appeti- tive aspect:
Evagrius
gluttony
lust
avarice
dejection
anger
despondency
vainglory
pride
Climacus
anger
despondency
gluttony
lust
avarice
vainglory pride
)ohn is normally careful, in Steps 8-23, to point out how the depen- dent vices are linked with the primary seven: just as the virtues form a ladder, so the vices form a chain, ^^^ in detail his scheme takes this form:
anger (8)
dependen t vices: m a 1 i c e (9)
248, 9(«4()D-841A). p, 152. Thus:
anger leads ro malice: 9 (841 A), p. 1.14; malice leads to slander: 10 (B4.1B), p, 15.1; slander leads lo talkativeness: 1 1 (S.12A), p, 158: lalkaliveness leads to (1) falsehood: 12 (K53D), p, 160;
(2) despondency: 13 (857D), p. 162; dcsporulcTH-y leads to liisl: 26 (1 1()9|», p. KM; gluttony leads 1o(l) lust
(2) in.sensitiviiy; 14 (H69D), p. 17(1; I7('>29|i), p, [9(1. insensitivily ("unbelief") and vainglory lead lo fear: 2! (94 1H), p 199, vainglory leads to pride: 22 (94VA), p. 201; pride leiid.s to blasphemy: 2 3 (976Fi), p. 211.
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
slander (10) talkativeness (11) falsehood (12)
despondency (13) gluttony (14) lust (15) avarice (16)
vainglory (22) pride (2 J)
dependent vices:
dependent vice:
insensitivity (18) fear (21)
blasphemy (23)
John's classification of the vices, drawing as it does upon earlier authorities yet adhering slavishly to none of them, illustrates the way in which he combines tradition and personal originality in The Ladder. What he borrows he makes his own.
The Influence of The Ladder " '
Why should The Ladder of Divine Ascent have proved so remark- ably popular?^*^ Partly, no doubt, because of the striking symbol of the ladder, which binds together the whole book, and has caught the imagination of innumerable readers. More fundamentally, its popu- larity is surely due to the author's combination of shrewdness and hu- mor, to his skill in drawing so many themes into a single synthesis, and above all to the depth of his spiritual insight.
The wide diffusion of The Ladder is reflected by the large number of surviving manuscripts, sometimes illustrated, and often including scholia or commentaries. ^^^ The respect felt for its author is evident from the unusual prominence that he enjoys in the ecclesiastical year. Besides having in the normal way an annual commemoration on March 30 in the calendar of fixed feasts, he is also commemorated on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and most of the liturgical texts on that day refer to him.^^' This Sunday commemoration in the Great Fasi
249. On the influence of The Ladder, see M. Heppell, introduction to The Ladder iif Divine Ascent, ET Archimandrite Lazarus, pp. 25-31-, Couilleau, AAV viii, col.s. 3tl2-S.
250. Some of these scholia appear in Rader's edition, and are reprinted in PC HN.
251. See The Lenten Triodton, ET Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos \\';i\r (London 1978), pp. 353-67.
66
marks John Climacus out as the ascetic author par excellence, whose writings provide a standard and model for the whole Church. As al- ready mentioned, The Ladder is appointed to be read in Orthodox monasteries each year during Lent.
St. John Climacus' influence on later spiritual writers has been extensive. At Sinai itself his teaching on prayer and inward stillness was developed by Hesychius (Peighth-ninth century) and Philotheus (?ninth-tenth century). The first of these, in his work On Watchfulness and Holiness, takes up the scattered allusions in The Ladder to the Jesus Prayer and the invocation or remembrance of Jesus, and makes this his dominant theme. Although surprisingly The Ladder is nowhere cited in the vast eleventh-century anthology entitled Evergetinos, it was certainly read and valued by St. Symeon the New Theologian. Nicetas Stethatos, Symeon's biographer, recounts how, on a visit to his family home shortly before his profession as a monk, Symeon found the book in his father's library: "and, becoming closely familiar with it, like good earth he accepted the seed of the word in his heart."'^^^ y^^. J^addefs influence can be seenjn particular in Symeon's teaching on the gift of tears, and in his picture of the spiritual father in the Discourse on Confession.
St. Peter of Damascus (twelfth century) quotes The Ladder at least thirteen times, and the fourteenth-century Hesychasts draw heavily upon it. There are thirteen citations from The Ladder in St. Gregory of Sinai — far more than from any other author — and, in his list of Writers approved for monastic reading, Gregory puts first the name of John Climacus. ^^^ In the Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts by St. Gregory Palamas, The Ladder is quoted some twenty-five times, >nd in the Century of St. Kallistos and St. Ignatios Xanthopoulos more than thirty times. The parts of The Ladder to which these fourteenth- century writers chiefly refer are Step 27 on hesychia and John's state- ments on the invocation of the name of Jesus.
'The Ladder was soon translated into the other languages of the Christian Fast: into Syriac before the end of the seventh century.
1$1. Life of St. Symeon the New Theologian 6 (ed. I. Hausherr, Orienlalia Christiana xli. pt), 4 2M|, p. 12): Synicun wa.s particularly helped by Siep 13. 'I'l-ie Ladder is Cilrd twice- in Symeon's Caleeheses 14, lines 540-2; 30, lino 141), jltlioii^;!) tioi ii|ipiirriilly Jtl his nilu-i- wiiiinns, liui Synifuti hardly ever nisikes explit-it ciiaiions (r nhvr wrir-
•n.
Hi. Ihi Sltllnm am! the Ivo .\U-lhmts o/' I'niyer I I l/Y, 1 51), | !>4)))
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INTRODUCTION
within a few decades of John's death; into Arabic and Georgian by the tenth century, and also into Armenian; into Slavonic by the tenth century, and into Romanian early in the seventeenth century. Its in- fluence in fifteenth-century Russia can be seen both upon the leader of the Non-Possessors, St. Nil Sorskii, and upon his chief opponent among the Possessors, St. Joseph of Volokalamsk. In the correspon- dence of Tsar Ivan IV, often styled "the Terrible," next to the Holy Scriptures the book most often quoted is The Ladder.^^* The anony- mous Russian Pilgrim, in the middle of the nineteenth century, is also familiar with the work.^^'
In the West a first translation in Latin, perhaps only partial, was made in the eleventh century; a second version was made in the thir- teenth or early fourteenth century by the Franciscan "spiritual" of the Strict Observance, Angelas Clarenus.^^^ The first English trans- lation appeared in 1858, the second in 1959 (revised edition, 1978);^^' the present English rendering, in the series The Classics of Western Spirituality, is thus the third.
"Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly. "^^^ The Ladder of St. John Climacus grew out of its author's living experience, and it requires from each reader a living, personal response. Read hastily, in a spirit of detached curiosity, the book is likely to prove a disappointment. But John never meant it to be read in that manner. He expected it to be pondered slowly, in a spirit of compunction, and with a sincere in- tention on the reader's part to change his way of life; and if the book has proved deeply influential, that is because so many have read it in precisely such a way, applying the words personally to their own sit- uation. This is a ladder that we must each ascend for ourselves.
Bibliographical Note
(I) The Greek Text. There exists as yet no fully critical edition of the Greek text of The Ladder and To the Shepherd. The Greek is at pres- ent available in two independent editions:
(i) By Matthew Rader (Paris 1633). Twice reprinted: (a) J.-P. Migne, PG 88 (Paris 1864), cols. 632-1208.
2.^4. See HTM, p. xxvii.
255. The Way of a Pilgrim, ET R.M. French (London 1954), pp. 80, 82, 143, 191, 227
256. See J. Gribomont, "La Scala Paradisi, Jean de Ra'ithou et Ange Clareno", i'lu- diii Afonastica ii (1960), pp. 345-58.
257. For details, see below, "Bibliographical Note."
258. Brief Summary (1161 A), p. 291.
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INTRODUCTION
(b) P. Trevisan, Corona Patrum Salesiana, series graeca 8-9 {2 vols., Turin 1941); includes some minor corrections of (a).
(ii) By the hermit Sophronios, monk of the Holy Mountain (Constantinople 1883); often superior to the text of Rader-Migne.
(II) English Translations.
(i) Father Robert, Monk of Mount St. Bernard's Abbey (Leices- tershire, England), The Holy Ladder of Perfection, by which we may ascend to heaven (London 1858). Often more a paraphrase than an exact ren- dering. Omits most of Step 27 on stillness: "this Degree," says Father Robert, "as chiefly appertaining to solitaries, has been abridged by the translator" (p. 392).
(ii) Archimandrite Lazarus (Moore), The Ladder of Divine Ascent, with an introduction by M. Heppell (London 1959). Far more accu- rate than (i). Reissued in revised form by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Boston, Massachusetts 1978); this reissue includes, besides The Ladder, the work To the Shepherd (omitted in the 1858 and 1959 translations). As well as using the different printed editions of the Greek, the revisers consulted the ninth-century Sinai manuscript no. 421; but regrettably the helpful introduction by Dr. Heppell has been omitted.
(III) Studies. For a short but balanced survey of Climacus' life and teaching, with bibliography, see G. Couilleau, DS viii (Paris 1972), cols. 369-89.
Consult also:
M.O. Sumner, St. fohn Climacus: the Psychology of the Desert Fathers (The Guild of Pastoral Psychology, Guild Lecture no. 63: London 1950) (an attempt to understand Climacus in terms of Jungian analyt- ical psychology; too brief to be fully convincing, but indicates an im- portant field for further research).
J.R. Vlartin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus (Studies in Manuscript Illumination 5: Princeton 1954) (on illustrated manuscripts of The Ladder).