21 The reference is probably to Ecclus xxiii. 29, "Idleness hath taught much evil."
36 2 Thess. iii. 11; 6; 1 Thess. iv. 11.
37 The monks of Egypt were famous for their labours, and Cassian's language might be illustrated from many passages in the Fathers; e.g., Epiphanius, in his third book against heresies, compares the monks, and especially those in Egypt, to bees, because of their diligence. So S. Jerome, writing to Rusticus (Ep. cxxv.), says that no one is received in a monastery in Egypt unless he will work, and that this rule is made for the good of the soul rather than for the sake of providing food. Compare also Sozomen H. E. VI. xxviii., where it is said of Serapion and his followers in the neighbourhood of Arsinoe that "they lived on the produce of their labour and provided for the poor. During harvest-time they busied themselves in reaping: they set aside sufficient corn for their own use, and furnished grain gratuitously for the other monks." S. Basil also, in his Monastic Constitutions cc. iv. and v., speaks strongly of the value of labour and the Rule of S. Benedict (c.xlvili.) enjoins that "as idleness is the enemy of the soul, the brethren are to be employed alternately in manual labour and pious reading."
38 This Paul is perhaps the same as the one mentioned in connection with Abbot Moses in Conference VII. xxvi. As he was a contemporary of Cassian he must be carefully distinguished from his more illustrious namesakes, the first hermit and the disciple of S. Antony.
39 Also called the desert of Calamus, Conference XXIV. iv., but its position has not been ascertained.
40 Mansio used here and again in Conference XXIV. iv. for the stage of a day's journey.
41 This Abbot Moses is probably the one to whom the first two Conferences are attributed (cf. also Conference VII. xxvi.); and possibly the second of this name (Moses the Libyan) mentioned by Sozomen, H. E. VI. xxxix. Cf. also Palladius, the Lausiac History. c. xxii.