[Scriptum compendiosum Psalterii intentionem declarans]

but certainly I would not counsel you to receive those things then which perhaps a little before, sitting in the cloister, you had read in books others, and which you now bring back from this auditorium after hearing me speak with a living voice; these things are wholesome, but you do not wholesomely revolve them while chanting. For the Holy Spirit does not receive as pleasing at that hour whatever else you offer, having neglected what you ought to. So much for him. Also, to the point, the same Bernard writes to a young man thus: "Always keep your heart to the psalmody, unless you are carried off to something more sublime. Since you know what is being said there even to the last letter, you are for certain a debtor either to say it in your choir or to hear it in another." It is read in the Vitas Patrum Lives of the Fathers that at one time a demon came to the cell of the blessed Macharius in the guise of a monk, and knocking at the door, said to him: "Rise, my brother, and let us go to the brothers' collacio conference/gathering." But the holy man, understanding that it was a demon who was addressing him, said to him: "O liar and enemy of all truth, what do you have in common with the congregation of the saints?" To whom he replied, laughing: "Do you not know that without me no gathering of monks is held? Come and you will see our works." The man of God, therefore, rising and

going to the gathered brothers, saw what looked like small Ethiopians running hither and thither and flying about; and if they touched anyone on the eyes with two fingers, they immediately became drowsy. If they put a finger into the mouth of someone, they made them yawn. With some, they even turned into the forms of women. With some, however, they were building and carrying and doing other things that nations do. And just as all those things they were seeing were figured, so the brothers were revolving these same things in the thought of their heart. Yet, from some brothers, as soon as they began to act upon their bodies, they were quickly repelled, so that they did not even dare to pass before them. The holy Macharius, however, with this vision completed, observed each brother and found each one deluded in his own thought, just as it had been revealed to him through the display. Also, it is read in the Vitas Patrum Lives of the Fathers about two young brothers whose works the blessed Macharius, desiring to know, came to their cell to spend the night with them. Seeing the man of God, they adored him; and after prayer was made according to custom, and sustenance was taken, they finally placed one mattress in the corner of the cell for the blessed Macharius, while they themselves rested in another corner. But after they thought